Box Score RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Three Nanooks scored in double digits Friday, led by senior guard
Ronnie Baker's (Vallejo, Calif./Communication) 21, but the Alaska men's basketball team could not overcome the hot shooting of Azusa Pacific, as the Cougars won 77-68 in both teams' first game of the Ayres Inn & Suites CBU Classic.
Azusa Pacific (2-2) shot 59.3 percent in the first half and kept it going with a 54.5 clip in the second to finish the game shooting 57.1 percent – the highest percentage of any Nanooks (4-2) opponent this season. The Cougars shot 31.3 percent from beyond the 3-point line, but they struggled at the charity stripe, going just 16 for 27 (59.3 percent) in free throws.
It was back-to-back games over 20 points and three for the season for Baker, who notched a career high 29 Saturday against Fresno Pacific in the championship game of the Nanooks' own GCI Alaska Invitational. He is now averaging a team-best 19.2 points per game while pulling down 5.0 rebounds a game – second-best on the team. He grabbed six boards Friday and also had three steals and an assist.
Azusa Pacific had two 20-point scorers of their own Friday that were the driving engine of the Cougars' offense. Troy Leaf led all players with 25 points, including three 3-pointers. Tyler Monroe had 20 points and seven rebounds. The Cougars got points from six other players, who combined to shoot 50 percent. Leaf (8 for 12) and Monroe (8 for 13) shot a combined 64 percent and scored 45 of the Cougars' 77 points.
Senior forward
Andrew Kelly (Gilbert, Ariz./Justice) scored 18 points with an 8 for 9 shooting performance from the floor and tied for the game high with seven rebounds. Kelly has scored 12 or more points in four straight games and collected no less than five rebounds in all six of Alaska's game this season. Senior center
Sergej Pucar (Belgrade, Serbia/Business Administration) was the Nanooks' other double-digits scorer with 12.
Alaska scored the first four points of the game but would not see the lead again after that. Azusa Pacific took an eight-point advantage with a 15-3 run over a 5 minutes, 25 seconds span to build a cushion they would hold for a majority of the game.
The Nanooks got within four points of the Cougars in the first half with a quick 9-4 run that spanned 2:54. They cut it to four on three more occasions after that, but that was as close as they would get for the rest of the game. The Cougars pushed their lead back to nine at one point before settling for a six-point, 36-30 halftime lead.
Azusa Pacific reached its first double-digit lead of the game with the first two baskets of the second half to make it 40-30. The Cougars would lead by as many as 13 during the second stanza thanks to an 8-0 run that started at the 17:27 mark on the clock and featured 3-pointers from Leaf and LyDell Cardwell. Their lead would not drop below seven points until there were 63 seconds left to play, when a Baker free throw made it 73-67.
Alaska faces tournament host Cal Baptist, 20-point winners Friday over Great Northwest Athletic Conference member Northwest Nazarene, at 6:30 p.m. AKST Saturday in the final day of the Ayres Inn & Suites CBU Classic.
