Brandon Walker felt like he let his team down Thursday. On Saturday, he picked the Seawolves up.
The junior guard hit a critical 3-point basket and then added three late free throws as UAA survived a Seattle Pacific rally, beating the top-ranked team in the West Region 75-64 at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.
After missing five late free throws in a critical loss to Northwest Nazarene two nights earlier, Walker stepped up Saturday with six consecutive points that pushed a slim three-point lead to a comfortable nine-point margin over SPU.
"It hit me hard missing those free throws. I was pretty messed up about it," said Walker, who led UAA with 23 points.
"I talked to (assistant coach Ryan) Orton about it, I thought I had let the team down. He told me that you have to fail before you succeed and said I would have a chance to make up for it."
Walker got his chance and he made it count. Now the Seawolves have to hope it's enough to get them into the Division II West Region playoffs.
They may have to wait until Tuesday morning to learn their fate. As much of the bracket as possible will be announced today, but late games in Hawaii on Monday mean the bracket might not be finalized until 2 a.m. Tuesday.
"It looks like we're going to end up No. 8 or 9," UAA coach Rusty Osborne said. "I don't think we'll get in, but it wouldn't surprise me if we did."
UAA (17-10 overall, 8-8 in the GNAC) entered the week ranked ninth in the West Region, then lost on Thursday before rebounding Saturday with one of its most impressive performances of the season. The team's chances of advancing to postseason play took a hit earlier Saturday, however, when No. 8 Central Washington beat St. Martin's 78-70 in overtime.
Central Washington has a better Division II record and a better West Region record than UAA, but the Seawolves have something the Wildcats don't -- wins over Western Washington and Seattle Pacific when both teams were ranked No. 1 in the West.
"If you look at the results against the other top teams, we have a little bit of an advantage," Osborne said.
Seattle Pacific (22-5, 13-3) had already clinched the conference title before Saturday's game, but back-to-back losses to UAF and UAA may cost the Falcons the No. 1 seed in the playoffs.
UAA junior forward Casey Robinson added 15 points and junior guard Drew Robinson scored 12 and provided tough defense against Chris Banchero, holding one of the conference's top players to six points on 2 of 10 shooting. Banchero was averaging 20 points a game on 53 percent shooting entering the night.
"Tonight it was all our defense," Walker said. "Drew Robinson did a good job on the best player in the conference. We followed his lead."
UAA held SPU to 38.5 percent shooting.
The Seawolves shot 50 percent from the field (25 of 50) and 50 percent from 3-point range (8 of 16).
Junior guard Brandon Larrieu led SPU with 23 points, including 17 of the Falcons' 29 first-half points. Junior forward Ryan Sweet contributed 13 points and 10 rebounds.
Slow starts have haunted the Seawolves this season, but this time they got off to an early lead and stayed in control throughout the first half.
UAA pushed its lead to as many as 13 points on several occasions in the second half, the last two times on a 3-point basket by Kevin White and a dunk by Aaron Stevens.
But the Falcons made a surge, cutting the lead to a single point on a 3-point basket by senior guard Adam Wardell.
The huge 3-point basket by Brandon Walker with 54 seconds left gave the Seawolves a six-point lead, and an audible sigh could be heard from the crowd as Walker tugged at his jersey.
The Seawolves made 9 of their final 10 free throw attempts to seal the win.
"Brandon has struggled from the 3-point line, but lately he has been getting back to be his old self," Osborne said. "He hit the big shot, then hit the free throws at the end. It takes a lot of intestinal fortitude to go back in that situation two days later. It couldn't happen to a harder-working guy than Brandon Walker."
Find Richard Larson online at adn.com/contact/rlarson or call 257-4335.
SPU 29 35 -- 64
UAA 37 38 -- 75
SPU -- Larrieu 7-16 4-4 23; Anderson 6-8 1-1 15; Sweet 2-7 8-11 13; Banchero 2-10 2-2 6; Wardell 2-5 0-0 4; Diederichs 1-3 0-1 2; Morse 0-0 1-2 1; Downs 0-3 0-2 0; Campanaro 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-52 16-23 64.
UAA -- Walker 8-12 5-7 23; C. Robinson 5-9 2-2 15; D. Robinson 3-3 6-8 12; K. White 3-6 0-0 9; Stevens 1-3 3-4 5; S. White 2-2 1-1 5; Lao 1-4 0-1 2; Gibcus 1-4 0-1 2; Pacitti 1-7 0-0 2. Totals 25-50 17-24 75.
3-point goals -- SPU 8-25 (Larrieu 5-10; Anderson 2-3; Sweet 1-4; Diederichs 0-2; Downs 0-2; Wardell 0-2; Banchero 0-2), UAA 8-16 (K. White 3-5; C. Robinson 3-6; Walker 2-2; Pacitti 0-3). Fouled out -- Downs. Rebounds -- SPU 36 (Sweet 10), UAA 30 (Walker 9). Assists -- SPU 15 (Sweet 5), UAA 15 (Gibcus 4; C. Robinson 4). Turnovrs -- SPU 13 (Banchero 4), UAA 9 (Gibcus 3). Total fouls -- SPU 22, UAA 20. A-- 815.
By RICHARD LARSON
rlarson@adn.com