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BELLINGHAM, Wash. - Visiting Alaska Anchorage edged the Western Washington University women's basketball team in double overtime, 75-72, on Thursday night at Whatcom Pavilion in a thrilling matchup of the top two teams in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings during a contest that featured a 13-point fourth quarter comeback from the Vikings and a game-tying layup from the Seawolves in the final seconds of the first overtime.

Trailing 45-32 early in the fourth quarter, WWU rallied to close the quarter on a 22-9 run, taking a 54-53 lead before the game reached overtime tied at 54-54. The Vikings opened a 5-point lead in the first overtime before Alaska Anchorage battled back to tie the game with a layup from Autummn Williams in the final seconds. UAA edged the Vikings with a strong finish to the second overtime after the game was tied 70-70 with less than a minute to play.

2nd-ranked UAA (26-1, 19-0 GNAC) clinched the GNAC regular season title with its 22nd consecutive win while 16th-ranked WWU had its 17-game win streak come to a close, falling to 23-4 overall and 17-2 in conference play.

A 3-pointer from Williams with 48 seconds remaining in the second overtime broke a tie at 70-70, the seventh tie of the game, before a layup from senior center Tia Briggs (Tacoma, WA/Wilson) cut the lead to 73-72 with 15 seconds to play. Kiki Robertson was fouled and hit two free throws with 11 seconds left to put UAA up 75-72 before a last-second 3-point attempt from Peacocke, who scored 16 points in the fourth quarter to help fuel the furious rally during regulation, was just off the mark as the Seawolves held on.

The Vikings trailed 45-32 after a UAA basket with 9:05 left in the fourth quarter before putting together the big comeback to close the period, capped with two 3-pointers from Peacocke. The second of her two 3-pointers late in the rally came with 1:45 remaining in the period for a 54-53 WWU lead - the first WWU lead since early in the first quarter.

Neither team scored following Peacocke's 3-pointer that put WWU ahead until Sierra Afoa was fouled with 13 seconds remaining in regulation. She made her first free throw attempt before missing the second. The Vikings grabbed the rebound and immediately called a timeout. Following a sideline inbound, Briggs was able to get a turnaround jumper look from midrange as time expired but the shot was off the mark as the game went to overtime tied at 54-54.

UAA used a rally of its own to force the second overtime after the Vikings grabbed a 61-56 lead with 1:48 to play in the first overtime. After the Seawolves scored the first basket of the overtime, WWU went on a 7-0 run that started with a 3-pointer from senior guard Aleisha Hathaway (Spokane, WA/Shadle Park) and ended with a layup from Briggs to grab the 5-point lead.

With WWU leading 63-59 after a pair of free throws from Peacocke with 21 seconds left, Tara Thompson hit a long 3-pointer from the top of the arc with 12 seconds remaining to bring UAA within 63-62. Hathaway was fouled with 9 seconds left and hit 1-of-2 free throws before Williams forced the second overtime period by grabbing the rebound off the missed free throw and driving the court to finish a left-handed layup at the other end with 2 seconds remaining to knot the score at 64-64.

The Seawolves had taken a 32-23 to halftime, using an 11-0 run to pull away from a 21-20 lead with 8:08 to play in the second quarter and lead 32-20 with 2:30 remaining. A 3-point play from junior forward Hannah Stipanovich (St. Louis, MO/Metro State) halted the run with less than a minute to play before halftime. The Vikings had overcome a 16-13 deficit at the end of the first quarter to the game at 18-18 on a 3-pointer from senior forward Kiana Gandy (Des Moines, WA/Mount Rainier) before the Seawolves made their run late in the quarter.

UAA led for the majority of regulation, though WWU kept the deficit within single digits for most of the game. The largest lead for the Seawolves came at 45-32 early in the fourth quarter prior to the rally by WWU to close out regulation. WWU cut the lead to 3 points or fewer on four occasions after halftime before Peacocke hit the 3-pointer for the 54-53 lead.

Peacocke finished with 31 points on 11-of-25 shooting, including 7-for-14 from 3-point range. Briggs totaled 17 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists while Gandy added 9 points.

Senior forward Rachel Albert (Bellingham, WA/Sehome) and senior guard Jessica Valley (Lafayette, IN/Nova Southeastern) each pulled down 8 rebounds, including 5 on the offensive end for Albert, as WWU and UAA finished the game tied 43-43 in rebounds.

WWU was held under 40% shooting from the field for just the third time during the season, finishing 26-for-70 (37.1%) from the field. The Vikings were 10-for-22 from 3-point range (45.5%) and made 10-of-13 free throws (76.9%). The Seawolves shot 23-for-64 (35.9%), making 7-of-20 3-pointers (35.0%) and going 22-for-26 (84.6%) at the free throw line.

Williams scored 31 points to lead the Seawolves on 10-of-24 shooting. Robertson added 8 points, 9 rebounds and 4 steals while Afoa finished with 7 points and 8 rebounds.

Thursday's game was the first double overtime game for WWU since Dec. 29, 2007, when the Vikings fell to UC San Diego, 79-76. The win for the Seawolves broke the GNAC record for conference wins in a season and tied the team's program record for longest win streak during the GNAC era.

WWU closes out the regular season Saturday, hosting Alaska Fairbanks at 3 pm. Saturday will be Senior Day, with the six seniors for WWU honored prior to the start of the game. The Vikings have already clinched the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye in the GNAC Tournament, which will be held March 2-4 at Marcus Pavilion on the campus Saint Martin's University.

GAME NOTES: Taylor Peacocke became the 4^th player (5^th time) in GNAC history and 2nd player in WWU history with 600 points in a season...also became the 3rd player in GNAC history to reach 1,800 career points, now has 1,823 career points...Peacocke is now 2 points shy of tying Jo Metzger (630 points) for the single-season WWU record...The 17-game win streak for WWU was the 4th-longest in program history...Tia Briggs has scored in double figures in 12 of her last 13 games...the double overtime game was the first for WWU since Dec. 29, 2007.