ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Senior guard
Nico Matthews (Twenty Nine Palms, Calif./College of the Desert) put together a career night as he led five players in double figures and the Alaska men's basketball team was able to hold off Minot State 83-77 on Friday at the AT&T Alascom Jamboree at the Wells Fargo Sports Center.
“I'm really excited for our guys because we needed to get off that slide,” head coach
Mick Durham said. “I felt we were playing pretty well in some games but to get the 'W' feels good.
Nico Matthews led the way and did a ton of things right. We had some nice balance too with our nine available guys.”
Matthews led the Nanooks (2-7) in virtually every category as he tallied a career-high 19 points on five of five shooting from the floor and he got to the free throw line 12 times, converting nine. He also had a team-high six rebounds and career-highs of six assists and six steals, while committing no turnovers.
“He's really improved throughout the season,” Durham said. “He had a tough situation last year when he joined the team in January and finished out the season. He's a point guard that's long and quick and he got to the hole early in this game and late in the game, he protected our lead with free throws. That's what he does, that's his game and right now he's playing it pretty well.”
Junior guard
Dominique Brinson (Juneau, Alaska/College of the Redwoods) and sophomore center
Sergej Pucar (Banja Luka, Serbia/Jacksonville College) each scored 14 points, while sophomore forward
Stefan Tica (Belgrade, Serbia/Panola College) and freshman forward
Jesse Ward (North Pole, Alaska/North Pole) both had 11 points, respectively. Brinson also was one assist off Matthews' mark, with five.
The Nanooks shot just under 51-percent (28-55 FG) for the game and drained six of 13 (46.2%) three-point attempts. Despite being outrebounded 38-32, Alaska committed just 10 turnovers as a team, compared to Minot's 13. The Alaska defense limited MSU to just 39.3-percent (24-61 FG) shooting and under 28-percent (5-18 3PT) from beyond the arc.
“We've only played three home games, so we're pretty comfortable in most environments, even road games,” Durham said. “We seem to keep our composure and hang around. When you are going to play a lot of road games or away from the Patty Center, you're going to have to grow up in a hurry and show some good things.”
The Beavers (1-8) were led by Yonas Berhe, who scored a game-high 23 points and added six dimes. Adam Randall also had 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Jonas Pollard contributed 10 points. Chris East also performed well on the boards, posting game-high honors with 11 rebounds.
Alaska led throughout the entirety of the game, but MSU threatened on quite a few occasions. The 'Nooks jumped out to the early 8-2 lead, but the Beavers came right back with an 8-2 run of their own to knot it up at 10-10 just under seven minutes in.
UAF came right back with nine of the game's next 11 points for a 19-12 advantage. Leading 23-16, Alaska gave up eight of 10 as Minot climbed to within a point at 25-24 with 5:39 to go. The Nanooks would lead by as many as seven late in the period, but took a 37-33 lead into the locker room.
After a three-pointer by Pollard to open the second half, the Nanooks took their largest lead of the game at 48-38 with 15:48 remaining after Brinson scored seven points in 2:34 to spark an 11-2 run.
The lead stretched to 53-41, but MSU kept fighting, using a 12-4 surge to get to within four at 57-53 with just over eight to go. The Nanooks got their lead back up to nine at 67-58 with 4:22 to play and the Beavers never came closer than six the rest of the way.
“This is kind of a new start for us,” Durham said. “This is the second game without
Jarrett Miller and we have to find our identity now. Jarrett had a lot to do with the last identity and how fast we were, the penetration and shooting the three. We have a different identity now; we shot better tonight, we played together and had 21 assists.”
Alaska returns to action Saturday at 5 p.m. for another AT&T Alascom Jamboree matchup against Portland Bible College in Anchorage. The Wildcats fell 95-54 to 21st ranked Alaska Anchorage in second game on Friday.
