By: Evan O'Kelly, Associate Commissioner for Communications

LACEY, Wash. – For a record seventh time, the University of Alaska Anchorage is the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Championships title winner, as the top-seed Seawolves knocked off host No. 6 seed Saint Martin’s 75-59 in the conference tournament title game Saturday night at Marcus Pavilion.
 
GNAC Championships Most Valuable Player Tori Hollingshead posted a career-high 15 rebounds to go along with 18 points for her 11th double-double of the season and played 38 minutes in the title tilt. “I’m still in shock, but at the same time I knew we were going to win it because it has been a goal since day one,” said Hollingshead. “We put in so much work. I didn’t realize I played that long, but if it helped the team that’s all I care about. I’m feeling great, and I’m excited to celebrate this with the girls.”
 
All-tournament selection Jazzpher Evans stepped up in 34 important minutes on Saturday, adding nine points, a game-high six assists and a pair of rebounds. “When you come to college, this is every kid’s dream growing up,” said the senior guard, who has accumulated upwards of 1,000 points in her UAA career. “When you get to this level you want to be part of a winning program and be part of something, and finally I got my opportunity to do that. I have a great team around me, and it’s just a surreal feeling. We worked for this all season, and I am just grateful. It is so much fun to play here. There are a lot of hard days, but this is one of the best feelings right here.”
 

2025 GNAC Women’s Basketball Championships All-Tournament Team
Player	School	Position
Tori Hollingshead - MVP	Alaska Anchorage	Center
Emilia Long	Alaska Anchorage	Guard
Jazzpher Evans	Alaska Anchorage	Guard
Jada Travis	Saint Martin's	Guard
Kiana Rios	Saint Martin's	Forward
Demi Dykstra	Western Washington	Guard

Claiming their first conference tournament title since the 2019 campaign, the Seawolves kept the Saints at bay – allowing just 25 points in the second half. It was a redemptive win of sorts, after SMU shocked the regular-season champion Seawolves 57-53 on the final day of the conference schedule one week ago on the same floor. “That loss was a big lesson for us, and all of our losses we have had have been our biggest lessons,” said Hollingshead on a team that has dropped just four contests all season. “We play with a chip on our shoulder after each time we lose, and every time we have lost to a team we have come back to beat them again. At the end of the day we knew what we had to do, went over what we had to fix in practice, and we were prepared to come and beat them.”
 
UAA improved to 27-4 on the season and will continue its campaign next week at the NCAA DII West Region Championships. “Saint Martin’s had a heck of a tournament, and they just have a way of dictating the tempo,” said UAA head coach Ryan McCarthy, who also led his team to its GNAC-record ninth regular-season title this winter. “We had to make some adjustments from our first game (against them), and we were prepared for this. Tonight the ladies battled, and I truly believe that no one works harder than these girls do. I am super proud of them, and the ladies played so great.”
 
Saint Martin’s had its historic run come to a halt with a record of 18-11 on the season, as it reached the GNAC Championships title game for the first time in program history. All-tournament forward Kiana Rios led her team with 16 points on 5-for-10 shooting, while Avery Oaster added a dozen points on 5-for-6 accuracy to go along with five rebounds. GNAC Freshman of the Year Jada Travis chipped in 10 points, as did Kasey Booster, but the Saints committed 20 turnovers and were out-rebounded 37-21 on Saturday.
 
The teams got off to a hot offensive start, trading buckets to the tune of a 14-11 advantage for the Seawolves midway through the opening quarter. GNAC Defensive Player of the Year Emilia Long played just two of the first 14 minutes of the game due to a pair of quick fouls at the outset, as she was forced to the bench for the majority of the first half.
 
After a 22-20 race in the opening 10 minutes, the Seawolves began to dictate the pace and out-scored the Saints by seven in the second to build a 43-34 halftime advantage. Jaisa Gamble had a loud block on a 3-point attempt by SMU’s Laiken Hill, and Jazzpher Evans had a brilliant, full-court pass back down to Gamble for a fast-break layup for the first double-digit advantage of the night.
 
Booster drained a triple coming out of the halftime break to cut the score to 43-37, and the Saints kept things close trailing 55-50 with 2:44 to go in the third. Long and Hedda Koehne scored the next seven points however, and Elaina Mack buried a dagger corner three at the buzzer to put the Seawolves ahead 65-52 after 30 minutes of action.
 
SMU fought valiantly but could not catch up in a seven-point fourth quarter, as UAA finished strong to secure the championship with its signature, smothering defense. Koehne had six points and four rebounds off the bench while Mack added nine points and Gamble finished with seven.
 
UAA shot 43.8% overall (28-for-64), making 3 of 12 threes (25.0%) and 16 of 21 foul shots (76.2%). SMU meanwhile shot 47.6% (20-for-42) including 3-for-13 from long range (23.1%) and 16-for-20 from the foul line (80.0%).
 
GAME NOTES: Saturday marked the second time the teams met at the GNAC Championships, with SMU winning the only other encounter in the 2014 quarterfinals…UAA claimed the rubber match after the teams split their regular-season games…the Seawolves are the lone GNAC program – women’s or men’s – to have appeared in all 14 GNAC Championships tournaments…UAA’s seven titles are three more than the next-closest GNAC program, Western Washington…UAA is now 18-7 all-time in conference tournament games…SMU made its fifth GNAC Championships appearance and is now 4-5 all-time in conference tournament games.
 
NCAA SELECTION SHOW: With its win Saturday, UAA earned the conference’s automatic berth into the NCAA West Region Championships. The NCAA selection show, which will unveil the 64-team field for the national tournament, will air live on www.ncaa.com on Sunday night at 7:30 p.m. (Pacific).