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FAIRBANKS, Alaska – Despite trailing by six with less than five minutes to go, 20th-ranked Alaska Anchorage mounted a comeback, outscoring Alaska 19-8 to end the game, and notched a 79-74 Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's basketball victory Thursday night at the Patty Center.
The Seawolves improved to 21-5 on the year and 15-3 in league play and will be the No. 2 seed in next weekend's conference championship, while the Nanooks ended their season with a 5-23 record and 2-16 mark in GNAC play.
“I'm proud of our guys,” head coach Mick Durham said. “We took it right down to the wire against a good basketball team. [UAA] didn't look very good, they didn't look like a good basketball team [at times] to our credit.”
The Nanooks trailed 55-54 with less than 11 to go, but a 10-3 run over 6:03 gave the home team a 66-60 advantage with 4:54 left in regulation. Moments later, Lonnie Ridgeway, who came off the bench for 15 points, converted an old-fashioned three-point play with a bucket and a free throw to trim the deficit in half.
On the other end, senior Nico Matthews (Twenty Nine Palms, Calif./College of the Desert) missed on a layup and Travis Thompson erased Alaska's lead on the ensuing possession when he knocked down a three-pointer with 3:58 to go.
Sophomore Stefan Tica (Belgrade, Serbia/Panola) answered with one of his four triples to give the 69-66 lead to the 'Nooks, but UAA's sharpshooter, Kyle Fossman hit his first trey of the game seconds later. After Matthews was left wide open and hit a three, Fossman again tied it at 72 apiece with a long ball.
Alaska failed to score and Marcus Jackson's jumper in the paint gave the visitors a two-point lead with 87 seconds left. Back-to-back offensive fouls by the Nanooks meant UAA would have to make free throws down the stretch to put it away. Jackson hit one of two from the line and Brinson was fouled on UAF's next possession and knocked down both free throws with 14 seconds to go.
Fossman went two of two on the other end to up the lead to three seconds later. On the final possession for Alaska, sophomore Sergej Pucar's (Belgrade, Serbia/Jacksonville) three-point attempt bounced off the front iron and Thompson put the game away with two free throws.
“We had a three-point play designed there late and it wasn't designed for Sergej to take a three,” Durham said. “The defender got in the way and he took the three designed for Stef. It wasn't too bad a look in that type of situation and it almost the front rim and bounced in.”
Tica led the game with 26 points on 10 of 14 shooting and hit four of six from beyond the arc. Junior Carthal McDonald (Los Angeles, Calif./Compton CC) had 13 points and a game-high eight rebounds, while Pucar, Brinson and Matthews each had 11 points, respectively.
Alaska shot 47-percent (26-55) for the game and made nine threes on 20 attempts (.929). It also outscored UAA at the free throw line by a slim 13-12 margin. UAF missed only one free throw attempt, while Anchorage missed two.
Thompson led four UAA players in double figures with a team-high 18 points. Fossman finished with 16 points, while Ridgeway was pivotal off the bench with 15. Taylor Rohde, the league's leading scorer, was limited to just 10 points and five rebounds.
“They needed [Ridgeway's] 15 points,” Durham said. “I don't know if they beat us here tonight without Ridgeway.”
UAA shot 59-percent (30-51) from the field and hit seven threes, while making 12 of 14 free throws (.857). It held a slim 26-23 advantage on the boards, but Alaska outdid the 'Wolves 8-5 on the offensive glass.
NOTE: It was the final game for Matthews, Armand Burkhead (North Pole, Alaska/North Pole) and Jarrett Miller (North Pole, Alaska/West Hills CC). Miller, who was averaging a team-best 16.7 points per game, tore his ACL back in November and played in only seven games this season.
