CHICO, Calif. - Sophomore forward
Stefan Tica (Belgrade, Serbia/Panola College) scored a career-high 30 points and shot lights out from beyond the arc, draining 8-of-10, to lead the Alaska men's basketball team to its first win of the season, 88-85, against San Francisco State at the Carl's Jr. Mac Martin Invitational on Sunday at Acker Gymnasium.
In the second half, Tica, who was named to the All-Tournament Team, tallied 22 points and was a perfect 6-for-6 from three to lead the Nanooks (1-1) to their first win in the
Mick Durham era.
“It's exciting to get my first win and I was hoping I'd get it sooner than later, so it's a relief to get that one out of the way,” Durham said. “We played very well in the second half and obviously we had a player that went off from three. That's your concern as a coach to contain that three-point line and I'm glad Stefan was on our side today.”
“He stayed in a rhythm pretty much the whole game and hit big shot after big shot,” Durham said. “Anytime you make eight out of 10 three's in a game, it's really something. There's no question his three-point shooting was the big difference.”
With the game tied at 69-69, Alaska went on a 12-2 run that spanned 2:45 to grab an 81-71 lead with 4:41 to go in regulation. The Gators (1-1) answered the call with 10 straight, which included two 3-pointers by Reilly Griffin, and the game was knotted up at 81-81 with 2:25 left.
“I knew going up 10 with about four and half minutes to go might be too early and we were pretty excited at the timeout,” Durham said. “They came back and tied it and then we ended up getting a couple of big hoops.”
The Nanooks came back with four consecutive points by senior guard
Jarrett Miller (North Pole, Alaska/West Hills CC) to give the Nooks an 85-81 advantage. Nefi Perdomo hit a long ball with 24 seconds to go to cut the lead to 87-85 and SFSU fouled Miller. The senior co-captain made one of two from the free throw line, setting up one last opportunity for the Gators to force overtime.
On the ensuing possession, Perdomo's three was off the mark with four ticks to go, but Reilly Griffin got the offensive rebound and was immediately fouled with one second on the clock. He missed both free throws and Alaska escaped with the three point victory.
Three other Nanooks scored in double figures as Miller chipped in 16 points to go with his career-best eight assists, while sophomore center
Sergej Pucar (Banja Luka, Serbia/Jacksonville College) and senior guard
Nico Matthews (Twenty Nine Palms, Calif./College of the Desert) had 11 and 10 points, respectively. Matthews also had a career-high four steals.
Alaska shot the ball significantly better today, making 53.8-percent (28-52 FG) of its attempts, including a remarkable 64-percent (16-25 FG) showing in the second half. It shot extremely well from long range as well, converting 44-percent (11-25 3pt) of its shots from beyond the arc. The Nooks also got to the free throw line 26 times, making 21 of them (80.8%).
“We have some things that we learned [this weekend], but it's nice to learn with a win,” Durham said. “I'd rather learn by winning than learn by losing.”
For San Francisco State, James Albright led all scorers with 32 points and added 10 rebounds for a double-double. Reilly also posted a double-double with 16 and 11 and made a team-high three 3-pointers while Perdomo contributed 14 points for the Gators in the loss.
SFSU shot 47.9-percent (35-73 FG) from the floor but struggled at the line, making just 8-of-15 (53.3%) attempts from the charity stripe. It did win the rebounding battle, holding a 41-29 advantage, including 19-5 on the offensive glass. The Gators also shot a similar percentage from long range, draining 7-of-16 (43.8%).
The Nanooks will open their home slate next week when they host the 2011 GCI Alaska Invitational at the Patty Center in Fairbanks. They will be joined by Lindenwood, Southwest Baptist and Tiffin in the four-team event. Their first home game will be Thursday at 7:30 p.m. against SBU.
“It will be fun to be home and it's our only three home games until after Christmas, so hopefully we'll take advantage of that,” Durham said. “We have three good teams coming in. Our schedule is very tough for us, but we want a tough schedule. We want to be prepared when the GNAC starts and definitely these three games in our tournament will do that starting with Southwest Baptist on Thursday night."
