[ BYUH BASKETBALL ]
Seasiders advance
to second roundBYUH defeats Alaska-Anchorage
67-61 in the opening round
With the season on the line and another first-round exit from the Division II NCAA Tournament looking likely, Brigham Young-Hawaii basketball coach Ken Wagner had to tell his players to stop doing what got them there.
He told them it was time to stop helping each other and start taking care of their own business.
"We came out a lot more intense and just started playing together," PacWest Player of the Year Jake Chrisman said. "We were helping each other too much and once we got out of that and took care of our business we took off."
The Seasiders advanced to the second round of the West Regional yesterday, beating Alaska-Anchorage 67-61 at San Bernardino, Calif. The Seasiders will take on Humboldt State today at 3 p.m. Hawaii time for the right to play in the regional final.
The Sea Wolves picked apart the Seasiders on their way to a 13-point lead in the first half, most of the scoring coming when they hit seven of 13 3-pointers, most of them uncontested. Alaska-Anchorage came into the game as the best 3-point-shooting team in the nation.
At least they looked like it in the first half.
Wagner told his charges to stop helping out so much on defense, to go to their "contain" man-to-man that puts each player on an island against his opponent and asks him to either shut him down or go home.
The Seasiders chose to shut them down, holding the Sea Wolves to a single score from downtown in nine attempts.
"(Wagner) just told us to focus and put the first half behind us," senior point guard Beau Nobmann said. "We weren't hitting our shots and weren't getting the fouls. We were out of our flow but still hanging in there. That's all we had to do.
"We have a number of different defenses and went into more of a contain defense where we are more responsible of our own man instead of helping so much."
The Seasiders also began grabbing the boards, holding the Sea Wolves without a rebound for the first nine minutes of the second half. BYUH outrebounded foes 32.1-29.0 during the regular season, but were destroyed on the boards in the first half.
"When we went in and found out we were being outrebounded 19-10 it was embarrassing," Chrisman said. "We are usually a pretty good rebounding team and knew we had to get back to it."
It was BYUH's first win in the NCAA Tournament after previously failing three times over the past four years. The Seasiders hit half their shots (21-for-42) to put an end to talk about how they choke every year.
"We talked about it with some of the guys who have been here, about how they go to the tournament and lose in the first round," Chrisman said. "I was aware of it but didn't think about it because I knew this team would come out and be fine."
Chrisman did his part to destroy the Seasiders' reputation as first-round fodder, scoring 27 points and pulling down 10 rebounds. He missed a good chunk of the second half after colliding with a Sea Wolf, but returned in time to hit a key 3-pointer and a pair of free throws with less than two minutes left. Shawn Opunui, who leads the nation regardless of division with 56.7 percent 3-point shooting, hit all four of his 3-point attempts and scored 16 points, while Michael Stowell added 10 points and Nobmann contributed eight assists.
The Seasiders will face a familiar foe today, taking on sixth-seeded Humboldt State. BYUH beat Humboldt in Laie 108-97 in November, but both teams figure to be a lot better.
"We beat them at our place, so they are going to be hungry," Nobmann said. "I'm sure they are improved because we all are, but they looked like the same old good team to me."
BYU-Hawaii 67, Alaska-Anchorage 61
Sea Wolves (20-10)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Burgess 6 12 0 0 31 3 1 15 Durrant 0 1 0 0 7 0 0 0 Bullock 5 7 7 9 38 7 1 17 Lawrence 0 3 1 2 22 0 4 1 Fitt-Chappell 5 10 1 2 31 1 2 13 Drake 3 5 1 2 18 0 2 10 Stevens 1 2 0 0 18 1 2 2 Brown 1 2 1 2 12 5 2 3 Simpson 0 2 0 0 9 1 1 0 Austin 0 2 0 0 14 4 2 0 Team 4 Totals 21 46 11 17 200 26 17 61
Seasiders (23-5)
fg fga ft fta min reb a tp Opunui 4 6 4 4 33 4 5 16 Stowell 4 6 1 1 35 3 0 10 Chrisman 10 18 4 8 33 10 0 27 Nobmann 1 4 3 4 33 2 8 6 Smylie 1 2 2 3 29 2 1 4 Pittard 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 Lynn 1 3 0 0 11 1 1 3 Daley 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Solis 0 0 0 0 5 1 0 0 Heide 0 0 1 2 6 1 0 1 Fellars 0 3 0 0 12 3 1 0 Team 1 Totals 21 42 15 23 200 28 16 67
Key--fg: field goals; fga: field goals attempted; ft: free throws; fta: free throws attempted; min: minutes; reb: rebounds; a: assists; tp: total points.
Halftime--UAA 33, BYUH 29
3-point goals--UAA 8-22 (Drake 3-4, Burgess 3-8, Fitt-Chappell 2-5, Stevens 0-1, Lawrence 0-2, Simpson 0-2); BYUH 10-16 (Opunui 4-4, Chrisman 3-3, Stowell 1-2, Lynn 1-3, Nobmann 1-4). Personal fouls--UAA 20, BYUH 22. Technical fouls--Chrisman.
Steals--UAA 11 (Burgess 3, Lawrence 2, Stevens 2, Durrant 1, Fitt-Chappell, Brown, Austin); BYUH 8 (Opunui 5, Nobmann, Smylie, Fellars 1). Blocked shots--UAA 2 (Bullock, Austin); BYUH 0. Turnovers--UAA 17 (Bullock 4, Fitt-Chappell 4, Burgess 3, Lawrence 3, Drake , Brown, Simpson); BYUH 15 (Chrisman 4, Nobmann 4, Opunui 3, Stowell 2, Smylie, Pittard); Officials--Crozier, Pultz, Janelli. A--358.