The Alaska men's basketball team had chances to climb into the game with first-place Central Washington Thursday night, but nothing came to fruition. The Nanooks were outmatched across the board and lost 82-70.
Parrish West finished with a game-high 31 points—his ninth 30-point game of the season. West spent 38 minutes on the floor and was the team's favorite passing target throughout.
Central Washington took their first double-digit lead at 11:09 in the first half with a three-pointer by Humberto Perez. They never dropped back to single digits.
Mason King injected a spark off the bench in the second half that kicked off an 8-0 Nanooks run beginning at 5:36. He sank back-to-back layups—shots separated by King stealing the ball back from the inbounding Wildcats.
He nailed the final shot of the game: a floater from the top of the arc with 14 seconds to play.
King finished with nine points. Brett Barkman and Adrese Lavern finished with eight apiece.
The Nanooks got second chances with 13 offensive rebounds but shot just 36 percent on the game. In contrast, the Wildcats finished 49 percent from the field.
Alaska hosts Northwest Nazarene Saturday afternoon at 3:15 p.m. as the late game of a doubleheader with the women's team.
