FAIRBANKS, Alaska – Alaska hits the court for the final time in the 2011-12 regular season this Thursday at 7 p.m. when it plays host to in-state rival, Alaska Anchorage. The Nanooks will honor their three seniors,
Armand Burkhead,
Nico Matthews and
Jarrett Miller, prior to tipoff.
The Nanooks enter the week 5-22 overall with a 2-15 mark in the GNAC, while the 20th-ranked Seawolves are 20-5 on the year and 14-3 in league play.
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Following a 60-42 setback on Thursday to Western Oregon, Alaska ended its 13-game winless streak on Saturday against Saint Martin's, as it rallied for a 72-70 win at home. In the final 5:45, the 'Nooks hit five of six shots from the field and drained 11 of 12 free throws to rally back and down the Saints.
“It was a much needed win,” head coach
Mick Durham said. “Our guys feel great. Anytime you're on a losing skid like that, you need to get a breakthrough anyway you can and it wasn't easy or pretty, but we did it in a way that makes you feel good being that we had to come down in the final five minutes to get it done.”
Stefan Tica led four Nanooks into double-figure scoring with a team-high 19 points as he drained all three of his three-point attempts.
Sergej Pucar finished with 17 points and six rebounds, while
Dominique Brinson contributed 15 points and
Nico Matthews had 10 points and nine assists.
In the GNAC rankings,
Nico Matthews all season has been the theft master with a GNAC-best 2.9 steals per game, while ranking second in assists by a slim margin with 5.0 dimes per outing. He is also fourth in assist-turnover ratio (2.3), ninth in field goal percentage (.524), 11th in free throw percentage (.808) and 13th in total rebounds (5.6 rpg).
Stefan Tica is the 15th-leading scorer (14.2 ppg) and ranks fourth in three-pointers made (2.4 per game).
Dominique Brinson is 19th in scoring (12.7 ppg), while sitting seventh in free throw percentage (.829) and eighth in steals (1.5 spg).
Sergej Pucar is 13th in free throw percentage (.798) and 15th in total rebounds (5.3 rpg).
As a team, Alaska is also the second-best free throw shooting (.766) team in the league, trailing NNU by only a fraction of a percent.
Game 28: Alaska ( Game Notes ) vs. #20 Alaska Anchorage (Game Notes)
When: Thursday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m.
Where: Fairbanks, Alaska (Patty Center)
Live Stats
Live Audio (KCBF 820 AM)
Video: NMTVSports (Free Streaming)
About UAA: Located in Anchorage, the University of Alaska Anchorage was founded in 1977 and has an enrollment of 20,242 students. The Seawolves enter Thursday with a 20-5 record, a 14-3 mark in the GNAC and a No. 20 ranking in the latest national poll.
Back on Dec. 10, the Seawolves rallied from a 17-point deficit in the second half and took a 68-62 win at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.
UAA averages 77.9 points per game, while limiting opponents to just 64.2 points. As a team, it shoots 50.4-percent from the floor, while opponents manage 42.5-percent shooting. The Seawolves also make 41-percent of its three-pointers, which leads the league and holds a 33.1 to 27.9 advantage on the boards on average.
Taylor Rohde, the league's leading scorer, paces the offense with 20.6 points and 8.1 rebounds per game.
Travis Thompson (11.1) and
Kyle Fossman (10.2) also average double-figure scoring, while
Steve White leads the GNAC with 5.1 assists per game.
Coach: Rusty Osborne (Texas '88) is in his seventh year at the helm and has compiled a 130-72 record since being hired to coach the Seawolves. He led UAA to five straight winning seasons and four NCAA Championship berths. Last season, he led the Seawolves to an opening round upset against No. 6 Humboldt State, before falling to national runner-up BYU-Hawaii in the West Region semifinals.
