ANCHORAGE – Western Kentucky star Courtney Lee scored a Shootout-high 28 points Friday to help his team fight off a late comeback by host Alaska Anchorage and earn a 71-67 win in the Carrs/Safeway Great Alaska Shootout consolation semifinals at Sullivan Arena.
The Hilltoppers (4-1), the preseason favorites in the Sun Belt Conference East Division, also got 14 points from guard A.J. Slaughter in the victory.
UAA (2-2) was led by 20 points and nine rebounds from senior forward Carl Arts and 17 points from senior post McCade Olsen. Seawolf point guard Luke Cooper dished 10 assists – also a Shootout-high through the tourney’s first six games – to break the Great Northwest Athletic Conference’s career record. The senior from Melbourne, Australia, now has 604 career dishes.
The Seawolves trailed 36-29 after Slaughter sank the first basket of the second half, but UAA rallied with an 8-0 run to grab the lead on back-to-back shots by Olsen. That would be UAA’s last lead, however, as WKU sank three straight three-pointers – by Matt Maresca, Ty Rogers and Lee – and raced to a 50-39 advantage with 12 minutes left.
WKU led by 67-57 with 3 minutes to play before UAA made one final rally. The Seawolves pulled within 67-65 with 15 seconds to go, but Lee had the answer again, making a pair of free throws to clinch it for the Hilltoppers.
WKU advances to Saturday’s 4th/6th-place game against Michigan (2 p.m. AST), while UAA will face Eastern Washington for 7th place at noon. The Seawolves will be trying to avoid their first winless Shootout since 2001.
