The University of Alaska Anchorage’s women’s basketball team took second place in the Great Alaska Shootout, falling to Western Kentucky 62-58.
After blowing out Pepperdine in the first round, UAA coach Ryan McCarthy was unhappy with the team’s showing in the championship game.
“We just didn’t follow our game plan even remotely close,” McCarthy said. “I was very disappointed in our effort I thought was very B-plus.”
UAA finished the first half with a 1-point lead. But, after taking over the lead in the 3rd quarter, Western Kentucky never gave it back.
McCarthy says rebounding was a big difference-maker.
“One of our goals was we needed scrap out rebounds and box out, and we did not do that remotely close in the second half,” he said. “Just got out-hustled. And really, to Western’s credit, they wanted it more than we did, as much as it pains me to say that.”
Western Kentucky out-rebounded the Seawolves 24-14 in the second half.
The Seawolves were just a three-point shot away from forcing overtime when, with 2 seconds left in the game, Western Kentucky sophomore Ivy Brown cemented the Lady Topper’s victory with a free throw.
Despite the disappointing loss, Coach McCarthy says there are several things the team can take away from the tournament.
“We can look back on this and we can pick out the areas that we didn’t give our best effort, that we didn’t execute a game plan and hopefully learn from those mistakes as we head into league coming up this next week,” McCarthy said.
UAA opens up its conference schedule Thursday next week against Simon Fraser University.
George Mason beat Pepperdine 71 to 63, taking third place in the women’s tournament.
Josh is the Statewide Morning News Reporter/Producer for Alaska Public Media | jedge (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8455 | About Josh
