Dec. 9, 2006
Fairbanks, AK - The Alaska Nanooks bounced back from their first loss at the Patty Center with a 78-68 triumph over Florida Tech to close out the 2006 Glacier Classic. The Nanooks (7-5) built a 13-point halftime lead behind a huge effort from senior forward Jushay Rockett (Long Beach, CA) and the Panthers (2-7) couldn't recover.
Rockett, an all-tournament selection, scored 18 of his game-high 26 points in the first 20 minutes to help Alaska build a double digit cushion. The 6-5 forward also hauled in nine of his game 14 rebounds despite facing a Panther front line that featured 6-8 Jod Kelley, 6-8 Justin Sedlak and 6-10 Janko Mrksic. Alaska out-rebounded Florida Tech 43-32 including 16 on the offensive glass.
Junior guard Kenny Barker (San Diego, CA) earned Toyota Player of the Game honors with 20 points and nine rebounds, while sophomore forward Colin Matteson (Lynnwood, WA) and freshman guard Jordan Hayter (Grants Pass, OR) added 13 and 12 points, respectively. Junior guard Barry Barnes, Jr. (Long Beach, CA) had just four points but tallied 11 assists, five rebounds, four steals with only two turnovers in 36 minutes.
Point guard E.J. Murray led the Panthers with 23 points, while Kelley and Mrksic put in 13 and 10 points, respectively.
With the score tied just over seven minutes into the game, the Nanooks went on an 8-0 run to take a 20-12 lead. Hayter nailed a three-pointer, Matteson added another from behind the arc and freshman forward Kevin Atkins (Long Beach, CA) capped the spurt with a dunk over Panther Arthur Richardson.
The Panthers clawed back to within one before the Nanooks used a quick 9-1 burst to take control for good. With the score 21-20, Rockett scored seven straight Nanook points on a jumper, a trey and baseline jam before Matteson ended the run with a lay-up.
Alaska started the second half with a 7-0 run to take a 20 point lead. Florida Tech pulled within single digits three times including within six, 57-51, with 8:05 to go. But Barker, who scored 11 in the second half, nailed a three and Rockett followed with an emphatic slam off an alley-oop from Barnes to put Alaska up 62-51.
The Nanooks will break for the holidays before taking the court in Anchorage at the AT&T Alascom Jamboree. The Nanooks play Hawaii-Hilo at 5:30 p.m. AST Dec. 28 and BYU Hawaii at 5:00 p.m. AST Dec. 29.
In the early game, Eric Draper scored 23 points and tournament MVP Luke Cooper poured in a season-high 17 to lead Alaska Anchorage to an 83-65 men's basketball victory over Augustana. The Seawolves (7-2) also got 11 points each from forwards Ivan Platenik and Carl Arts to finish as the only team with a 2-0 record at the Classic. Augustana (8-2) was led by forward Nick Olson's 15 points, as the Vikings had their seven-game win streak snapped.
UAA shot 58.1 percent from the floor and 83.3 percent from the free throw line, while committing just nine turnovers. Draper made 5 of 8 from three-point range and Cooper connected on 3 of, 6 as the team shot over 50 percent (13 of 25) on treys for the second straight night.
The Seawolves opened a 38-27 halftime lead and began the second half with consecutive three-pointers from Allen McFarland, Arts and Cooper to build a seemingly insurmountable 49-29 cushion.
But the Vikings weren't through as the long-range shooting of guard Joey Ryan (14 pts, 4-8 3FG) kept them in the game.
After having the lead cut to 64-58 with under seven minutes left, Arts sparked UAA's final surge with a driving basket, Draper nailed a quick pair of threes and Cooper connected on two from the free throw line to push the lead back to double-digits for good.
Draper scored 16 of his points in the second half and went 4 of 4 from the charity stripe. Cooper, who had only 18 total points in UAA's first eight games, made 6 of 10 from the field, while tallying game-highs of six assists and three steals and committing just two turnovers in 35 minutes.
2006 GLACIER CLASSIC
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
E.J. Murray, Florida Tech
Nick Olson, Augustana
Carl Arts, UAA
Jushay Rockett, Alaska
GLACIER CLASSIC MVP
Luke Cooper, UAA
