BYUH moves on in West regional

Advertiser Staff

The 25th-ranked Brigham Young-Hawai'i men's basketball team advanced to today's semifinals of the NCAA Division II West Regional after posting a 67-61 comeback victory against Alaska-Anchorage yesterday in San Bernardino, Calif.

For the first time, the Seasiders won a game in the NCAA Tournament since attaining Division II status in 1998-99. BYUH was 0-3 in the NCAA Tournament before yesterday's game.

"I felt all along that this team could play well and do a good job," said BYUH's Ken Wagner, the Pacific West Conference Coach of the Year.

The No. 2 seed Seasiders (23-5) will play No. 3 seed Humboldt State (25-5) today at 3 p.m. (HST). The game will be broadcast live on radio (650 AM). Humboldt State defeated Cal Poly Pomona, 86-83, in a first-round game yesterday.

Seventh-seeded Alaska-Anchorage (20-10) led by as many as 13 points in the first half. But the Seawolves could not stop BYUH's Jake Chrisman, the PacWest Conference Player of the Year, who scored 17 of his game-high 27 points in the second half despite suffering a gash above his left eye during a collision.

"We got off to a slow start and Anchorage was playing really well," Wagner said. "Fortunately we held in there until we started playing better."

BYUH started the second half with a 10-2 run to take a 39-35 lead. The Seasiders tied the game at 35 on Michael Stowell's 3-point play and took a 37-35 lead on Chrisman's basket.

The Seasiders increased their lead to 55-47 before the Seawolves mounted a rally in the final five minutes.

The Seawolves twice cut the lead to three points at 55-52 and 58-55, but BYUH's Shawn Opunui responded with 3-pointers both times.

Alaska-Anchorage closed to 63-61 on Jesse Brown's basket with 36 seconds remaining, but BYUH sealed the game on a pair of free throws by Opunui and a basket by Austin Smylie.

Opunui finished with 16 points, Stowell 10, and Beau Nobmann added eight assists. Peter Bullock led Alaska-Anchorage with 17 points.

Alaska-Anchorage connected on its first five 3-point attempts and took its biggest lead of the first half, 27-14, on Mark Drake's 3-pointer. BYUH closed the half with a 15-4 run, and trailed 33-29 at halftime.

"We needed to get busy and start playing better defense," Wagner said.

For the game, BYUH shot 51 percent from the field (21 of 41) and 63 percent from 3-point territory (10 of 16). Alaska-Anchorage shot 45 percent from the field (21 of 47) and 36 percent from 3-point territory (8 of 22).