Playing without three starters, the UAA men's basketball team couldn't make enough plays down the stretch to overcome Saint Martin's on Thursday.
The Seawolves were within two with two minutes to go, but the Saints made a couple of big 3-pointers in the closing minutes to defeat UAA 71-66 at the Alaska Airlines Center.
UAA played the game without its big three from the University of the Pacific: senior forward Jacob Lampkin, senior guard D.J. Ursery and senior guard Maleke Haynes.
Lampkin, UAA's leading scorer (15.1 points per game) and rebounder (9.7) will miss the rest of the season with a broken foot.
Ursery, UAA's second leading scorer at 11.6 points per game, suffered a sprained ankle in Wednesday's practice, but could return for Saturday's game against Seattle Pacific, UAA coach Rusty Osborne said.
Haynes is out with an academic issue, but could possibly return at some point this season, Osborne said.
Despite missing three key players, UAA (7-6, 3-2 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) stuck with the Saints (10-3, 3-2) for most of the game.
UAA led 35-34 at halftime and trailed 63-61 with 2:14 to go.
But the Saints scored eight of the next 10 points and an old-fashioned, three-point play by UAA freshman guard Brennan Rymer for the game's final points was too little too late.
Saint Martin's dagger was a trey by E.J Boyce that put the Saints up 69-63 with 37 seconds to go.
"I thought we let one slip away that we could've got despite the fact that we were shorthanded," Osborne said. "I thought we gave a great effort from the eight guys that played.
"We had guys playing out of position, which limited some of the plays we could call."
Rymer provided a career night for the Seawolves at the point guard position in his first start of the season. The 6-footer from Sydney delivered career highs of 14 points and 10 assists for a double-double.
Rymer's double-digit assists were the most by a Seawolf since Brian McGill dished 10 in win over Western Oregon on Feb. 22, 2014.
"He gets into the lane and was able to finish," Osborne said. "He certainly has some weakness that he has to work on but competitiveness is not one of those. He did a pretty good job of leading our team tonight."
Senior guard Drew Peterson added 13 points, shooting 2 of 4 from 3-point land and junior guard Malik Clements scored a career-high 11 points.
Luke Chaves (23 points) led a trio of double-digit scorers for the Saints. Rhett Boerlocher (14) and Boyce (10) also contributed.
Saint Martin's biggest advantage came in the paint, where they outscored UAA 32-16.
The depleted lineup meant long minutes for the of eight eligible Seawolves. At one point in the first half, UAA was down to one player left on the bench after a couple of minor injuries to freshman Eric Jenkins and Peterson. Both later returned to the game.
The Seawolves will continue to try to find their new groove without Lampkin and Haynes on Saturday against Seattle Pacific (8-4, 3-2) at the Alaska Airlines Center.