PORTLAND, Ore. — Alaska Anchorage seniors Alysa Horn and Sasha King were selected to the All-Great Northwest Athletic Conference Second Team while Jessica Madison of Port Angeles earned the GNAC Freshman of the Year honor as the league handed out its annual women’s basketball postseason awards.
For Madison, the redshirt becomes the third Seawolf in the league’s 12 years to earn the Freshman of the Year award, joining Rebecca Kielpinski (2005-06) and Gritt Ryder (2011-12).
The Port Angeles product is the Seawolves’ fourth-leading scorer at 9.7 points per game, tallying double figures in 11 of the last 17 contests.
The 5-foot-8 guard upped her average to 10.3 ppg in GNAC play as Alaska Anchorage went 11-7.
Madison, the all-time leading scorer for the Roughriders for both boys and girls, has already set the Alaska Anchorage freshman record with 35 3-pointers made, and with 13 points in Saturday’s regular-season finale at Alaska Fairbanks she moved up to No. 6 on the scoring list with 252.
Loses in quarterfinals
On Wednesday night, Alaska Anchorage lost 65-60 to fifth-seed Northwest Nazarene in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament quarterfinals at Marcus Pavilion in Lacey.
Northwest Nazarene (20-7) advances to the semifinals today against top-seed Western Washington (23-3).
Today’s first semifinal will match No. 2 seed Simon Fraser (22-4) against sixth-seed Seattle Pacific (17-10).
In Wednesday’s game, though Northwest Nazarene never trailed and was tied just once, the game remained close throughout, remaining in single digits during the final 15 minutes.
Four different times the Seawolves, who trailed 42-30 in the opening minute of the second half, pulled to within three and once — on a free throw with 2:02 left by Madison — Alaska Anchorage cut its deficit to two (60-58).
Northwest Nazarene, however, was then able to put the game away at the foul line converting on five of seven over the final two minutes.
Horn led Alaska Anchorage with 20 points while King had 17 points.
For Horn, the conference honors was a repeat of her second-team status as a sophomore in 2010-11, while improving on her honorable-mention accolades from last year.
The 6-foot forward from Kodiak narrowly missed first-team honors despite ranking sixth in the league in scoring (15.2 ppg), second in rebounding (9.1 rpg), third in double-doubles (8), fifth in blocks (1.2 bpg) and first in minutes (35.8 mpg).
Horn finished the regular season with 13 straight double-digit scoring efforts as UAA rallied for a seven-game winning streak, a third-place tie in the GNAC standings and a 17-9 overall record.
Also a three-time Academic All-GNAC selection, she ranks in UAA’s career top 10 in 18 different categories, including 10th in scoring (1,114 pts), ninth in rebounds (632), 10th in blocks (56), seventh in three-pointers made (112) and fourth in victories (87).
Meanwhile, King missed first-team honors despite being one of just three players in NCAA Div. II to average more than 15 points and five assists this season.
The point guard from Norman, Okla., ranks fifth nationally with 5.9 assists per game and is among the GNAC’s top-5 stats leaders in six categories — steals (first, 3.0 spg), assists (second), 3-pointers per game (second, 2.5), minutes (33.2 mpg), scoring (fifth, 15.5 ppg) and asst.-turnover ratio (fifth, 1.5) — and is sixth in free throw percentage (.808) and eighth in 3-point field goal percentage (.358).
The The Seawolves are ranked ninth in the Northwest region.
