Thompson earns her keep on UAA women's basketball team

Don't tell UAA guard Tara Thompson the odds. Chances are she already knows them.

The sophomore accounting major has a knack for numbers and is the go-to person when a teammate needs to know a free-throw percentage or wants assistance with math homework.

She's especially helpful on the basketball court, where she provides dependable 3-point shooting and solid defense.

Thompson defied the odds when she went from being an undersized 5-foot-7 walk-on guard out of Dimond High to a scholarshipped starter for a Seawolves women's basketball team that is coming off a second-place finish in the NCAA Division II Tournament last season.

In UAA's Nov. 6 exhibition game against Division I Washington State, Thompson exploded for 26 points in an 81-73 loss. She hit eight treys, shooting 67 percent from beyond the arc.

"That day the ball was going in the hoop for me," Thompson said. "It was a good feeling."

UAA coach Ryan McCarthy said he wasn't surprised by Thompson's hot shooting — he first saw what she was capable of when she scored 43 points in a high school game against South to get her team to the state tournament during her senior season.

What did surprise him was Thompson's top-notch defense and rebounding against bigger, faster players. Through four games, Thompson is fourth on the team with 3.8 rebounds per game.

Thompson earned a scholarship after proving herself at practice during a redshirt season two years ago. She averaged 3.5 points per game off the bench as a redshirt freshman last season and she's a starter this season, one of five returners from last year's 38-3 team. She has more than doubled her minutes per game (20.1) and points per game (7.8) this season.

"I feel like I kind of know the system a little bit better this year," Thompson said. "With the newbies coming in, I feel like I can give them some pointers or tips to help them out, especially on our defense, because our defense is so up-tempo."

McCarthy said Thompson's success stems from a work ethic that reminds him of her brother, Travis Thompson, the all-time 3-point leader in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference — a record McCarthy used to hold when he played for Northwest Nazarene.

Travis made 302 3-pointers for the UAA men from 2010-2015.

"I think her brother was an All-American who couldn't dunk," McCarthy said. "Athletically, he was a little limited, but he was a heck of a player, and Travis was always in the gym. That's kind of how Tara is."

Tara said Travis sparked her interest in basketball when they were both young, shooting baskets on a hoop in their backyard. Even now, with her brother playing professionally in Germany much of the year, they still find time to meet up and play together over the summers, she said.

"He was my role model growing up," Thompson said. "Just watching him be successful in basketball, I wanted to do the same.

"(To) this day, we still work out together. Over the summer, he'll help me on my game and we'll rebound for each other and give each other pointers, stuff like that."

Whether it was working with her brother, training with teammates or putting in work on her own, Thompson made big strides in her game over the summer, and her coaches and teammates noticed.

"Tara as an individual, she had an amazing summer," said UAA guard Sierra Afoa, whose mom was Thompson's kindergarten teacher. "She worked on her foot speed and even her shot, even though she's already a good shooter.

"Just seeing the steps she took this summer to improve even more was cool to watch."

Long before they were playing for conference and national championships with the Seawolves, Afoa and Thompson played basketball together growing up. In high school, they both played for Jim Young at Dimond.

"(One) thing about Tara is until her freshman year of high school, she had never pulled her hair back into a ponytail when she played," Afoa laughed. "She always wore it down, so I think everybody's major memory of Tara back in the day was her playing with her hair down and having it in her face while she's playing."

Thompson was a multi-sport athlete for the Lynx — a quality McCarthy said he likes in his players. She played softball and flag football when basketball wasn't in season.

Thompson led the Dimond flag football team to back-to-back undefeated seasons in 2012 and 2013 as the team's quarterback. One day after a UAA practice, McCarthy — who also played quarterback in high school — challenged Thompson to a throwing competition at the Alaska Airlines Center.

"… That kid has a cannon," McCarthy said. "There was one practice one day and I was joking around with Tara that I could throw the basketball further.

"She said, 'Well, I think I can throw it out of the gym.' "

Thompson and McCarthy each threw the ball over the upper-deck bleachers and onto the running track on the arena's top level. The competition ended in a tie, but McCarthy was impressed.

"You have to launch it (to get it up there)," he said. "The other girls can't even get close."

Thompson's shooting range is often on display in games, but McCarthy said he needs to play her even when her shots aren't falling because of her much-improved skills on defense.

"When she got here, she was not a great defender and she has turned herself into an excellent defender and a very cerebral defender in the sense that she is consistently in the right place at the right time," McCarthy said. "She does all the little things, like she boxes out, she has great footwork in her closeouts, and I think she takes a lot of pride on that end."

Going into this week's GCI Great Alaska Shootout, the Seawolves are 4-0, with their closest win coming by 37 points. UAA will face its first significant challenges since the Washington State game at the four-team tournament.

Thompson said she grew up watching the Shootout, and she's excited for her second opportunity to experience it as a player. Last season, UAA finished runner-up to Western Kentucky.

"It's just an exciting tournament to play in and be a part of," she said. "For the team, I know that every year we look forward to this tournament because we get to see how we stack up against Division I teams."