BURNABY, B.C. – Five Simon Fraser men's basketball players reached double digits in scoring Monday afternoon but the team fell 75-70 to visiting Alaska Anchorage in a battle of Great Northwest Athletic Conference rivals at the West Gym.
 
Junior guard Wilfried Balata and senior guard Josiah Mastandrea had 14 points apiece to lead SFU (10-10, 5-7 GNAC). Balata also grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds.

Senior guard Jordan Lyons went 4 of 5 from the field en route to a 12-point performance off the bench. Freshman guard Elliot Dimaculangan scored 11 points, while junior guard/forward Jahmal Wright had 10. Sophomore guard David Penney recorded seven assists and seven rebounds.
 
Tobin Karlberg, David Rowlands, and Keegan Crosby posted 17, 16, and 14 points for the Seawolves, respectively. Crosby also had seven rebounds.
 
Down 41-32 at the half, UAA outscored the hosts 43-29 after the break half to earn the win. The Seawolves improved to 12-7 overall, and 7-5 in the GNAC.
 
"Disappointing loss," commented SFU head coach Steve Hanson. "There were a lot of positives in the first 35 minutes of this game, but we are not valuing the ball when it matters most in crunch time. You want to win games when you're up? You value the ball and execute with the lead. You want to lose the lead? You have multiple turnovers. We outrebounded UAA 39-26 and yet, they still had 55 shots to our 57 shots. Hard to win important games when you have nine more turnovers than your opponent. We need to fix this issue. We are an excellent team when we value the ball and we need to get back to that."
 
A 7-0 run – courtesy of a Dimaculangan three, and layups from senior forward Julian Roche and Lyons – gave SFU a 54-41 advantage with 13:19 to go in the game. It was the team's biggest lead of the contest.
 
The advantage was 10 (67-57) after a pair of Lyons free throws with less than six minutes on the clock. But the Seawolves turned the game around by scoring the next 11 points, taking the upper hand 68-67 on a Darius Guinn layup with 3:40 remaining.
 
SFU regained the lead with two Lyons foul shots on the next possession, but UAA did not trail again after Karlberg's jumper just inside the two-minute mark. His basket made it 70-69 for the visitors, who made five foul shots after that to round out the team's scoring. The Seawolves didn't allow a field goal in the final 7:45.
 

SFU surged to a 13-3 edge to start Monday's game, thanks in part to a pair of three-point baskets from Mastandrea, and one from Wright. UAA got to within two points at 26-24 with 5:57 left before halftime.
 
SFU answered back with a 15-6 run, started by a fast-break Lyons dunk and finished by a Dimaculangan three with less than a half minute on the clock. Dimaculangan missed on an earlier shot from long distance, got the offensive rebound and converted on the follow-up opportunity to make the score 41-30. UAA got the final bucket of the half, which ended 41-32 in favour of the home side.
 
SFU outrebounded the visitors 40-26, leading to a 20-6 edge in second-chance points. The team shot 45.6 per cent from the field (26 of 57), 29 per cent from behind the three-point line (9 of 31) and 64.3 per cent from the foul line.
 
UAA was good on 45.5 per cent of its chances from the field (25 of 55). The Seawolves made a quarter of their three-pointers (6 of 24) and 79.2 per cent of their free throws (19 of 24).
 
SFU will end off the week with a tough road trip. The team will play at Seattle Pacific Thursday at 7 p.m., before travelling east for a Saturday night game at Montana State Billings (6 p.m. PT).
 
For the latest information on SFU Athletics visit https://athletics.sfu.ca. You can also find us on social media at @SFU_Athletics.

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