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Durham Press Conference
Players Press Conference
FAIRBANKS, Alaska - Alaska found itself in familiar territory late in the second half on Saturday night, trailing in the ball game, but the men's basketball team hit five of six shots from the field and drained 11 of 12 free throws in the final 5:45 to outlast Saint Martin's 72-70 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action at the Patty Center.
The Nanooks ended a 13-game losing streak and improved to 5-22 on the year and 2-15 in conference play, while the Saints dropped to 8-17 overall and 4-12 in the GNAC. It was also the first win for the 'Nooks since Dec. 31, 2011, when they rallied for a 91-80 overtime win against Central Washington.
“It feels good, I'm happy for our guys,” head coach
Mick Durham said of ended the losing streak. “You don't wish that on any basketball team what we went through. I actually just had to count, I hadn't actually counted how many in a row.”
“It'd been 48 days and it feels good,”
Stefan Tica said. “I'm sorry it took this late [into the season], but better late than never.”
Trailing 55-49 with just under six minutes to go, a three-pointer by
Carthal McDonald (Los Angeles, Calif./Compton CC) sparked a 14-4 run that spanned 98 seconds to give the Nanooks a 63-59 lead. SMU came right back and tied it with a pair of jumpers by
Brok Pendleton on consecutive possessions to knot it up at 63-63 with 2:10 to play.
After both teams committed turnovers,
Sergej Pucar (Belgrade, Serbia/Jacksonville) gave the locals the lead back with 1:22 to go with a made jumper. On the ensuing possession,
Brady Bomber fired a three-pointer from the right wing for the lead, but it was off the mark and
Dominique Brinson (Juneau, Alaska/College of the Redwoods) was fouled. He made both free throws to double the lead to 67-63, but Pendleton again answered with another bucket.
After McDonald made one of two from the line,
Roger O'Neill was fouled on a made shot, but missed the game-tying free throw with 15 seconds on the clock. From there
Nico Matthews (Twenty Nine Palms, Calif./College of the Desert) made four free throws to put the game away.
“We hung in there,” Durham said. “We kept battling and we hit a couple shots, got ourselves back in it and then we made our free throws. We are a good free throw shooting team. We shoot 75-percent on the year and making 19 of 20 [tonight], we needed them all.”
Sophomore
Stefan Tica (Belgrade, Serbia/Panola) led four scorers in double figures with a team-high 19 points as he went three for three from beyond the arc. Pucar contributed 17 points and a team-best six rebounds, while Brinson and Matthews had 15 and 10 points, respectively. Matthews also dished out a game-high nine assists and overtook the outright conference lead in that statistical category.
Alaska shot 48-percent (23-48) for the game and drained seven of 10 three-pointers (.700). It also got to the line 18 times in the second half and 20 for the game, outscoring the Saints 19-9 from the charity stripe. Rebounds were tied at 25-apiece, but the Nanooks took advantage of points off turnovers, outscoring the visitors 22-11 on giveaways.
Pendleton led the Saints with a game-high 23 points to go with nine rebounds. O'Neill had 12 points, while
Jeremy Green came a point shy of a double-double with nine points and 11 rebounds.
SMU shot nearly 60-percent in the second half and finished 53-percent (27-51) for the game. It made seven threes on 14 attempts (.500) but only got to the free throw line 13 times, making nine shots (.692).
The Nanooks conclude the regular season next Thursday against their rival, Alaska Anchorage. We ask that fans come a little early as Alaska's three seniors,
Armand Burkhead,
Nico Matthews and
Jarrett Miller, will be honored prior to the 7 p.m. tipoff at the Patty Center.
