University of Alaska Fairbanks Athletics

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — The Alaska men's basketball team returns home this week for its first home games of the season and a chance to defend its title from a year ago when it hosts the 2013 GCI Alaska Invitational Thursday through Saturday at the Patty Center.
 
Emporia State (4-0), Fresno Pacific (3-2) and the University of Mary (2-0) will all be in attendance for the fifth installment of the Alaska Invitational. The round-robin tournament will be composed of three two-game sessions, one each on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Sessions begin at 5 p.m. each day with a neutral site game between two of the three visiting teams, then close with an Alaska Nanooks game at 7 p.m.
 
Alaska opens tournament play Thursday against University of Mary at 7 p.m. The Nanooks take on Emporia State at 7 p.m. Friday, and then close the tournament at 7 p.m. Saturday against Fresno Pacific.
 
Alaska won the 2012 GCI Alaska Invitational with three straight wins over Cal State Monterey Bay, Oklahoma Panhandle State and Colorado Christian. Senior center Sergej Pucar (Belgrade, Serbia/Business Administration) and redshirt senior forward Stefan Tica (Belgrade, Serbia/Business Administration) both made last year's all-tournament team
 
The Nanooks (1-1) enter this year's tournament following a third-place finish at the season-opening AT&T Jamboree in Anchorage last week. They fell to Regis 72-63 Friday before earning their first win of the season with a 72-48 victory over Holy Names Saturday.
 
Senior guard Ronnie Baker (Vallejo, Calif./Communications) was named to the AT&T Jamboree All-Tournament team after leading the Nanooks in scoring in both games. Baker scored 15 in the season opener against Regis and tallied 20 against Holy Names while also grabbing six rebounds and dishing four assists.
 
Junior guard Joe Slocum (San Francisco, Calif./Communications) averaged 12.5 points and 3.5 assists over the two-game tournament. Pucar notched double-digit points in both of the Nanooks' first games this season and pulled down eight total rebounds.
 
Last season's tournament-opening win over Cal State Monterey Bay snapped a three-season losing streak in home openers for the Nanooks. That streak came on the heels of a three-year winning streak in openers dating back to 2006-07.
 
Game #3: Mary vs. Alaska – Thursday, Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. (AKST)
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The Marauders (2-0) have opened the 2013-14 season with wins over NCAA Division II independent South Dakota School of Mines and NAIA member Presentation College. It's their best start since 2010-11 when the team began the year 5-0 and made it to the NCAA Tournament.
 
Jalen Jaspers leads Mary in scoring through two games with 36 total points. Jaspers has also been the team's top rebounder with 6.5 boards per game. The Marauders' second-leading scorer, Marquealis Edwards (12.5 ppg) has been the team's best free-throw shooter at 81.8 percent (9 for 11). Edwards is also the team's top assists man with 4.0 per game. Mary has held its first two opponents to shooting a combined 28.1 percent while shooting 41.4 percent itself.
 
Game #4: Emporia State vs. Alaska – Friday, Nov. 22 at 7 p.m. (AKST)
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The Hornets (4-0) played a tough early exhibition slate against three NCAA Division I teams, picking up a victory against UMKC and dropping games to Oklahoma State and Wichita State. That has translated into four blowout wins over NCAA Division II-member Rockhurst and NAIA members McPherson, Sterling College and Bethel College. Emporia State's average margin of victory through its first four games has been 33.8 points.
 
The Hornets have three players averaging double-digit scoring through four games, led by Kaleb Wright at 14.0 points per game. Wright is shooting 52.5 percent so far this season, while the team is shooting 51.0 percent. Paul Bunch is averaging 12.5 points and 7.0 rebounds. Gavin Brown is the team's top rebounder at 9.3 per game.
 
Game #5: Fresno Pacific vs. Alaska – Saturday, Nov. 23 at 7 p.m. (AKST)
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The Sunbirds (3-2) are playing in their second tournament of the season this weekend after splitting two games at the Ron Logsdon Classic at Sonoma State last week. They have already swept two games from NAIA member UC Merced and have gone 1-2 against NCAA Division II teams, including a 69-67 loss against Great Northwest Athletic Conference member Simon Fraser in their season opener.
 
Fresno Pacific has shot 52.1 percent as a team through its first five games, including 32.9 percent from the 3-point line. Five different players are averaging double-digit scoring, led by Malcom Griffin's 14.6 points per game. Griffin also leads the team in steals (11) and assists per game (6.8). Jonathan Jefferson is close to averaging a double-double with 10.2 points and 8.4 rebounds per game.