It was one for the ages Thursday in Alaska as The Red Leafs took on the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves on the road. In a spectacular double overtime thriller SFU let one slip away in a game they outplayed their opponents most of the night.
 
Points were scarce to begin the game. Both teams played tenacious defence early. Through six minutes of play there were only 9 points to be had between either team. At the 14:00 minute mark With the Seawolves leading 6-3 things would begin to change in a hurry.
 
It started with sophomore Immanuel Oludele drilling a three pointer. Minutes later junior Elliot Dimaculangan was driving to the basket and fed a slick pass through multiple Seawolves defenders and found redshirt freshman Matthys Van Bylandt streaking to the basket, who threw it down for two.
 
The Red Leafs would continue to play suffocating defense. Fighting over screens, rotating while playing great help defence had the Seawolves searching for answers offensively. The Red Leafs had plenty of answers of their own. Redshirt sophomore Zach Stone worked his way down low for tough buckets as well as showing off his smooth jumper in the mid-range.
 
Dimaculangan continued slinging passes around the court to open teammates. Senior David Penney capitalized on those passes knocking down three pointers off them.
 
Just nine minutes after struggling to find the basket SFU lead 25-12 and had all the momentum. The Seawolves managed to weather the storm in the last five minutes of the half, cutting the lead to 27-18 going into the break.
 
The second half would not be scarce for points.  The half started with a battle between redshirt junior Eric Beckett who hit two three pointers on consecutive Red Leafs possessions and Sloan Lentfer for the Seawolves who dominated in the post getting three tough buckets in two minutes.
 
After both teams traded points, Freshman Irish Coquia would get red hot from three. Coquia would hit three shots from behind the arc in as many minutes including a beautiful step back with a defender in his face that had SFU in full command up 51-33 with 11:04 to go in the game.
The Seawolves would respond emphatically with a 15-0 run, finally hitting 3-point shots of their own after being ice cold from deep all night.
 
Clinging to what was now only a two-point lead with the score 52-50, the Red Leafs would shake that difficult sequence off and get back to where they left off.
 
Led offensively by Beckett and Stone, the Red Leafs would battle back and forth with the Seawolves. With the score 63-59 with just over a minute to go the Leafs had a chance to put the game away. With the shot clock winding down Dimaculangan received an open pass under the basket. With a defender closing out quickly Dimaculangan let what seemed to be a perfect shot go just over top of a Seawolves defenders' arms.
 
Unfortunately for SFU as the ball hit the side of the rim and appeared to be falling in the basket, it took a Seawolves bounce and rolled harmlessly out into the hands of a Seawolves player.
 
With 31.9 seconds left in the game the Seawolves inbounded the basketball. Tyson Gilbert worked off a screen into open space and hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to 63-62.
 
With SFU having possession of the ball, The Seawolves intentionally fouled Beckett sending him to the line. Beckett, unfazed by the magnitude of these free throws drained both shots.
 
With the score 65-62 Red Leafs with just 20 seconds to go SFU just needed one more stop. The Seawolves took the ball up court and gave Tyson Gilbert the ball. Gilbert received the pass pumped once as if he was shooting catching an SFU defender off guard as he leapt to block the shot. Now ,Gilbert drove left, side stepped to open space and nailed a three with just 9 seconds to go.
 
With the game now tied at 65 and under 10 seconds remaining the Red Leafs had a chance to win it. Penny crossed over and drove to the free throw line where he let go of a floater. The shot missed and much to the dismay of the Leafs coaching staff, despite contact to Penny on his release there was no foul call either.  The game was headed to overtime.
 
Overtime number one was all about defence. With Beckett and the Seawolves Gilbert each recording 4 points for their respective teams the game was tied at 69 with just 11 seconds to go.
 
The Seawolves had the ball and let the clock run down for one final shot. As the Seawolves Sawyer Storms drove attempting to end the game SFU's Immanuel Oludele and Matthys Van Bylandt stonewalled Storms stripping the ball from him and extending the game to a second overtime session.
 
The Seawolves started the second extra frame strongly with two hard earned buckets down low. Dimaculangan responded swiftly for The Red Leafs hitting another three -pointer in the left corner, cutting the lead to 73-72.  Soon after Penny drove hard to the left, putting in a tough layup giving SFU the lead back 74-73. Both teams would trade baskets with the lead changing back and forth throughout the frame. With the score 81-78 Seawolves with 17 seconds to go Dimaculangan weaved his way to a layup and the Red Leafs were within one.
 
Unfortunately, seconds later with the score now 83-80 the Seawolves would foul SFU not allowing them to put up a tying Three-point shot.  With only three seconds left SFU had to intentionally miss their second free throw attempt, grab the rebound and try to put up a last second prayer to tie the game.
 
Redshirt sophomore Sasha Vujisic went up for the rebound but was met by two Seawolves defenders, who grabbed the ball, and the game was all but over.
 
After a gut-wrenching loss SFU will stay on the road as they take on the Alaska Nanooks on Saturday.