Mar. 16—Despite a resurgent third quarter, the UAA women’s basketball team dropped a nail-biter Saturday in the semifinals of the NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball West Regional Championships.
The No. 4 Seawolves rallied from a double-digit deficit to take a fourth-quarter lead, but fell to top seed Cal State Dominguez Hills 63-61 at the Torodome in Carson, California.
UAA was down 23-14 after one quarter and trailed by as many as 18 points in the first half. Down 10 at halftime, the Seawolves dominated the third quarter, going on a 12-0 run over the first five minutes of the second half.
“We started in a pretty big hole, and that’s credit to Dominguez,” said UAA head coach Ryan McCarthy, whose team fell behind 32-14 early in the second quarter. “They kind of took us out of what we wanted to do, but when we started settling in — and it was more so making this kind of a half-court game — we were able to control the tempo with our (own) press.”
In total, UAA outscored the Toros 18-5 in the third.
UAA built a five-point lead but the Toros hung tight and eventually regained the lead in the fourth quarter.
Dominguez Hills took a 50-49 lead on a free throw with 8:45 remaining. Toros forward Asia Jordan added a free throw a little over a minute later as Dominguez Hills slowly built a small lead. Jordan led the Toros with 24 points and 10 rebounds.
Senior Tori Hollingshead scored 17 points and tied a career high with 15 rebounds. Junior Elaina Mack also scored 17.
Freshman forward Ashlyn Rean had an all-around game with nine points, nine rebounds and three blocks. Senior Jazzpher Evans too, contributed in multiple facets with five points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals.
The Seawolves, ranked 16th nationally, finished their season at 28-5. That win total is the eighth-most in team history, dating back 48 years.
Cal State Dominguez Hills will play No. 6 seed Central Washington in Monday’s West Regional championship.
The Seawolves topped Central Washington twice this year in a pair of competitive Great Northwest Athletic Conference games.
