Box Score RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Despite having three players in double figures Saturday, the Alaska men's basketball team was held to its lowest shooting percentage of the season as host Cal Baptist won its own 2013 Ayres Inn & Suites CBU Classic with a 70-59 win over the Nanooks at Van Dyne Gym.
Junior guard
Joe Slocum (San Francisco/Communications) led all players with 17 points and tied for the game lead with three assists and two steals. Seven of Slocum's 17 points came from the free-throw line, as he went 4 for 11 from the floor (2 for 5 3-pointers). The Nanooks (4-3) shot 28.6 percent for the game, including 26.1 percent (6 for 23) in the first half.
Junior guard
Rashaad Allen (Fairfield, Calif./Justice) and senior forward
Andrew Kelly (Gilbert, Ariz./Justice) both scored 12 for Alaska, which has lost back-to-back games for the first time this season after winning four straight. Kelly also pulled down a game-leading eight rebounds.
Cal Baptist had just one player in double figures with Ryan Berg scoring 14, but the Lancers got at least eight points from six different players and had nine players contribute to the scoreboard as they moved to 6-0 on the season.
CBU outrebounded Alaska 44-33, including 32-19 on the defensive glass. Three players had six rebounds for the Lancers, and 10 of the 11 players that saw time for the team had at least one board.
Cal Baptist led the whole way, as it started the game on a 13-4 run. The Nanooks cut that nine-point deficit to just two with an 11-2 run of their own over 2 minutes, 14 seconds during the first half. The Lancers responded and put it right back at nine with seven straight points, capped by a 3-point play from Anthony Cosentino that followed a Nanooks turnover.
The Lancers later pushed their lead to 18 with a 14-0 run, which occurred during a Nanooks scoreless streak that stretched across 7:11 of the first half. Cal Baptist would take a 14-point lead into halftime at 38-24.
That lead grew to as much as 27 in the second half thanks to an 11-0 run that started at the 12:05 mark. Berg had two of his three 3-pointers during the run and Ivan Patterson contributed four of his nine points at that time.
Alaska opens its 2013-14 Great Northwest Athletic Conference slate next week at in-state rival Alaska Anchorage. The Nanooks face the Seawolves, ranked No. 19 in this week's National Association of Basketball Coaches' NCAA Division II poll, at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex in Anchorage.
