Men’s Basketball: Saints unable to fend off Seawolves

February 5, 2007

Anchorage, AK (February 3) – Saint Martin’s couldn’t hold off the second half shooting of the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves falling 96-73 and dropping into second place in conference for the first time this season.

The Saints held the lead for most of the first half jumping out to a 20-12 lead but the Seawolves fought their way back. With 3:22 left in the half the Seawolves took the lead on a Luke Cooper three. They continued with a 15-5 run to take a 42-33 lead into the break.

The Seawolves continued to pull away in the second half. They went up by as much as 16 points before the Saints battled their way back to pull within eight, 66-58, with 9:22 left. Ivan Platenik then hit four consecutive points to put Anchorage back up to a double digit lead where they would stay for the rest of the game.

Brendan Campbell posted a game high 26 points and went 11-11 from the free throw line. Jake Linton added 21 points for the Saints.

“Brendan and Jake played really well,” said head coach Keith Cooper. “We really missed Stephon; we missed his toughness and his scoring. We’ve got to have some other guys step up and score in double figures.”

The Seawolves had five players in double figures. Ivan had 23 points while Cooper posted 21 and had eight assists. Eric Draper had 18 points on the night. McCade Olsen and Carl Arts had 13 and 11 points respectively.

“Anchorage is a very good team this was a must win game for them. They shot the ball real well from the three,” added Cooper. “They have excellent front line players and we had to play off Luke Cooper. We gave him some shots and he knocked them all down; he shot it real well and was a big factor in the game.”

Anchorage barely beat Saint Martin’s on the boards pulling down 32 to the Saints 29. The Seawolves did force the Saints into 15 turnovers with only eight of their own.

“Overall we battled the whole game but just couldn’t get it down to a manageable score to where we could have a chance at the end. It was a tough loss in a tough place on the road. We knew it was going to be a tough game hopefully we will rebound well and will get some guys to step up this week,” said Cooper.

The Saints return home this week to take on Western Washington University this Thursday in the first conference meeting for the two teams this season.