ANCHORAGE, Alaska – An early second half surge brought the Montana State University Billings men's basketball team (5-1, 0-1 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) within striking distance but the University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves (6-4, 2-0 GNAC) secured a 74-62 win in Anchorage on Thursday night.
 
"As always, I am really proud of our guys' effort tonight," head coach Jamie Stevens said after the game. "They played very hard until the end but you have to give Anchorage a lot of credit. I just felt like they were the tougher team tonight."
 
The Yellowjackets trailed by 10 after the first 20 minutes of play but came out of the halftime break on fire. Sven Jeuschede got the scoring started with a three, which was followed by a three from Kendall Denham. After another bucket from Denham the 'Jackets trailed by four when Zack Rollins drove the lane and finished a right-handed layup while drawing the foul. Rollins converted the free throw to cut the lead to one 39-38. Anchorage responded with 9-2 run and never looked back.
 
At the start of the game, the Seawolves built an early 10-5 lead heading into the first media timeout with 15:30 in the first period. Zack Rollins buried his first three of the game to trim the lead to two out of the break but the Seawolves began to stretch the lead from there. MSUB shot just 33.3 percent from the floor in the first half while Anchorage shot 50 percent in the period.
 
The 'Jackets found themselves trailing by 12 with 35 seconds left in the first half before a pair a free throws by Daniel Shedden cut the deficit to 10. Shedden, Rollins and Kamal Tall led MSUB with six points each in the first period while Rollins also paced the 'Jackets with four rebounds.
 
Denham had a huge second half with 15 points and finished the night with his first 20 point performance of the season. The senior point guard shot 8-for-12 from the floor including 4-for-5 from deep. He also led the 'Jackets with six assists and added five rebounds to his ledger.
 
Rollins was the only other MSUB player to reach double figures as the forward finished with 12 points and eight rebounds. Shedden finished the night with eight points in 17 minutes of action.
 
The UAA defense had a huge impact in the game holding the 'Jacket to 39 percent from the floor and held MSUB's top scorer, Tyler Green, to four points. The Yellowjackets did record a season best nine blocks in the game led by four from Zharon Richmond as Anchorage also finished shooting 39 percent from the floor. The game was closely called all night with the Seawolves finishing 26-for-30 from the free throw line while the 'Jackets converted 8 of 11 shots from the charity stripe.
 
"They did a really good job of taking Tyler out of the game," Stevens remarked about the Seawolves' defense. "Aside from Kendall, we just didn't have enough guys step up. It is a long season and this is just one step in the journey. We need to get better from it and get ready for a big game on Saturday in Fairbanks."
 
The Yellowjackets will continue GNAC play against the University of Alaska (2-5, 0-1 GNAC) on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Alaska time in Fairbanks, AK. The Nanooks fell to the Seawolves 65-39 in their conference opener on Tuesday. MSUB holds the all-time series lead with a record of 41-27 against UA but have only won 11 of 31 contests in Fairbanks.  
 
You can follow all MSUB home games and all GNAC road contests via the MSUB Stretch Internet Portal.