Box Score ANCHORAGE, Alaska - No. 22 Alaska Anchorage had three players score in double figures and rallied from 17 down in the second half for a 68-62 Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's basketball victory against Alaska on Saturday night at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.
“They made big shots but we gave ourselves a chance right there to the end,” head coach
Mick Durham said. “We lost the lead, but we came back and with a stop we would've had a chance to take back the lead.”
Taylor Rohde scored a game-high 24 points to go with his nine rebounds to pace the Seawolves (5-2, 1-0 GNAC) offense, while Kyle Fossman netted a career-best 19 points on five of nine from beyond the arc and Travis Thompson contributed 15 points.
“Rohde inside gets so much attention,” Durham said. “The three-pointer was a huge point for us and got away from us in the second half. We made a lot of mistakes in the second half, but we did a lot of good things to build the lead.”
The Nanooks (3-8, 0-1 GNAC) were led by sophomore forward
Stefan Tica (Belgrade, Serbia/Panola College), who scored a team-high 22 points. Junior guard
Dominique Brinson (Juneau, Alaska/College of the Redwoods) had 17 points, while sophomore center
Sergej Pucar (Banja Luka, Serbia/Jacksonville College) added 10 points and nine rebounds. Tica and Brinson both hit four triples on the night.
UAA shot just under 46.6-percent (27-58) for the game as opposed to Alaska's 39.3-percent (24-61). The Seawolves shot 45-percent from three, including 66.7-percent (8-12) in the second half, while the Nanooks were just under 29-percent (11-38). The 'Nooks held a 35-32 rebounding edge, including 11-8 on offensive glass, but committed 15 turnovers to UAA's 12. The Seawolves also had assists on 25 of 27 made shots, and the Nanooks tallied 21 on 24 field goals.
Tica scored the first nine points for the Nanooks as they opened with a 9-2 run in the first 3:08. UAA cut it back to three at 16-13 with 12:08 remaining in the first with two buckets in a row. Leading 18-17, Alaska went on a 15-4 run, capped off by a NBA-length three-pointer by
Nikolaos Stathopolous (Athens, Greece/Eastern Wyoming College) with 2:42 to go. The 'Nooks took a 33-23 lead into the locker room.
“Both Jesse [Ward] and Stefan had it going the first half,” Durham said. “You have to play both ends but they didn't get really any good looks in the second half, so sometimes going off early isn't the best thing you can do, but we'll certainly take those points.”
The Nanooks used a 8-0 run to stretch their lead to 17 at 45-28 with 16:47 remaining in regulation. The Seawolves responded with a 9-0 run with a pair of threes by Fossman in a matter of two seconds and one by Thompson to trim UAF's lead to 45-37.
“It doesn't take much for a home team to fill a rally and definitely those back-to-back threes did it,” Durham said. “They were toughness plays where he got open and it didn't take much to get that crowd back into it.”
Trailing 51-41, UAA tied the game with 10 straight over the course of 3:17. The Seawolves took their first lead of the game at 55-53 with 6:44 to go on a Rohde hook shot in the paint.
After a Nanook basket, Colton Lauwers drained a NBA-length trey to give UAA a 58-55 lead with just over five to go and Rohde's layup in traffic upped the advantage to five at 60-55 with 3:56 to go. Less than a minute later, Fossman hit a bomb from outside to give the Seawolves their largest lead of the game at 63-55.
Threes by Tica and Brinson cut it back to two at 63-61 with 1:42 to go, but Fossman drained yet again another three to up the lead to five. UAA put it away with 29 seconds to go when Rohde drove and laid it off the glass for a deuce.
The Nanooks will have 19 days off before hosting Northwest Nazarene and Central Washington back in Fairbanks for a two-game home set. Alaska takes on the Crusaders on Dec. 29 at 7 p.m., before facing the Wildcats at 1 p.m. on New Year's Eve.
“We're 2-2 without Jarrett [Miller] and the two losses have been tough road losses,” Durham said. “We need a good week of practice, then we'll get a break at Christmas and come back and have two GNAC games at home. We're looking forward to getting back home and playing in the Patty Center again.”
