Laura Ingham
It’s been 20 years, but Laura Ingham still gets emotional when she thinks back to when she played in the Great Alaska Shootout.
“Just remembering, I got a little choked up,” said the legendary Anchorage point guard.
The former East High girls basketball star took over the 2002 Shootout, leading Nevada to the tournament title and winning MVP honors – the only Alaskan to win the Shootout MVP award, a crown jewel in a sparkling college basketball career.
“It was just perfect,” said Ingham, a two-time Gatorade Alaska Player of the Year. “It was awesome, and I got to do it in front of my home crowd.”
Chugiak’s Nicole Pinckney can relate. The UAA senior guard was a freshman when the Seawolves won the 2017 Shootout title; however, that was the last time the tournament was played and it was assumed it was gone for good like the men’s Shootout.
Not so fast.
Nicole Pinckney
The UAA athletic department today announced the women’s Shootout will return this fall, thanks in large part to sponsors Arctic Slope Regional Corporation and ConocoPhillips Alaska. A four-team tournament will take place Nov. 18-19 at the Alaska Airlines Center.
“I’m super excited for it to come back,” said Pinckney, of Chugiak High fame. “It brings back a lot of memories from when we won it last time.”
Pinckney and teammate Jahnna Hajdukovich of Anchorage are the lone local players on the UAA roster.
The Shootout field will also include La Salle, UC-Riverside and Pepperdine, which features sophomore guard Kendyl Carson of Juneau.
Over the years, the Shootout has done a great job of bringing back elite Alaska women’s players for homecomings.
NOTABLE SHOOTOUT HOMECOMINGS
1984 – Andrea Lloyd (Juneau-Douglas) Texas*
1995 – Molly Tuter (Soldotna) Arizona State
1996 – Mendy Benson (Kenai) Oregon
2001 – Beatrice Bullock (Service) Iowa*
2001 – Leah Magner (Colony) Iowa*
2002 – Laura Ingham (East) Nevada*
2004 – Azella Perryman (East) Stanford*
2005 – Natalie Jones (East) Arizona
2006 – Letricia Castillo (Bartlett) Air Force
2007 – Chandice Cronk (Wasilla) Santa Clara
2011 – Sylvia Bullock (South) Miami*
2012 – Jenna Johnson (Wasilla) Utah State*
2022 – Kendyl Carson (Juneau-Douglas) Pepperdine
*Team won title
For Ingham, the Shootout represented her second chance. She had played two seasons at Ohio State and the Buckeyes were part of the 2000 Shootout, but Ingham had already transferred to Nevada.
“I thought I missed my opportunity,” she said.
Nevada didn’t have a Shootout-quality resume at the time, so Ingham made it her mission to make it happen.
“The school was not established,” she said. “We had to be great and they traditionally were not great.”
The 5-foot-4 playmaker pumped in a team-high 19 points as the Wolf Pack overcame a 16-point deficit and stunned Indiana 68-56 in the final.
Anchorage’s Laura Ingham in 2002.
Her MVP trophy was an ulu engraved with the Shootout logo.
“That was dope,” Ingham said. “Very Alaskan. I remember I had to leave it at home because I couldn’t take it back with me on the plane.”
The Shootout dates back to 1980 when it was born as the Northern Lights Invitational. Over the years the tournament featured nationally ranked teams and top-shelf players that went on to play in the WNBA like former MVPs Cheryl Miller of USC, Shannon Johnson of South Carolina, Chamique Holdsclaw of Tennessee and Candice Wiggins of Stanford.
In 1990, UAA beat South Alabama 88-87 to become the first NCAA Division II team in the country to win an otherwise all-Division I, eight-team tournament.
In 2003, the Seawolves won again, this time beating ACC power Clemson 61-58 behind head coach Jody Hensen of Homer.
Since then, UAA has racked up five more titles and made the championship game another five times.
Ryan McCarthy
The Seawolves are coached by another Alaskan as bench boss Ryan McCarthy hails from Peters Creek. He has posted a remarkable record of 244-43 (.850) in 10 seasons, winning his only Shootout title in 2017.
McCarthy wants the Seawolves to win another one. So does Pinckney.
“I definitely think we can do it again this year,” she said. “It’s always exciting playing Division I teams because people have this stigma about D2, but we’re all just players and it’s a great opportunity to play teams like that.”