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FAIRBANKS, Alaska — Junior guard
Benissa Bulaya's (Sacramento, Calif./Communication) halfcourt shot at the buzzer was blocked away by Seattle Pacific's Brianne Lasconia, and the No. 6-ranked Falcons escaped the Patty Center with a 71-68 win over Alaska in both teams' Great Northwest Athletic Conference opener.
Mechela Barnes missed her first, but hit her second free throw for the Falcons (7-0, 1-0 GNAC) with 3 seconds on the clock to make it 71-68. Bulaya dribbled the ball to her right and up the sideline after the Nanooks (6-3, 0-1 GNAC) inbounded before reaching the midway point and attempting the potential game-tying shot. Lasconia stuck one arm up and blocked the ball out of bounds as the buzzer sounded.
Freshman forward
Jordan Wilson (Henderson, Colo./Business Administration) led all players with 25 points. She also had nine rebounds and six steals. Freshman forward
Kaillee Skjold (Kasilof, Alaska/Emergency Management) pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds and tied for the game high with four assists.
The three-point defeat is the closest the Nanooks have been to the Falcons since they last beat them on Jan. 12, 2002, 75-71 in overtime at the Patty Center. Seattle Pacific has now won 24 straight in the series dating back to 2002.
Seattle Pacific's Suzanna Ohlsen hit three 3-pointers and scored 12 of her 19 points in the first half to help the Falcons to a 28-25 halftime advantage. The Nanooks did their best to avoid SPU's Katie Benson, who entered the game averaging 21.3 points and 11.0 rebounds a game. Benson was in foul trouble early, picking up three fouls in the first half, but she still managed to score 17 points and grab six boards in 13 minutes of playing time.
Both teams struggled offensively in the first half as SPU shot 30 percent and Alaska just 26.5 percent. It was a different story in the second half, though, as both teams shot better than 42 percent and scored 43 points each.
Alaska trailed by as much as 11 in the second half and was still behind by 10 with 5:31 to play after Benson hit a free throw to complete a three-point play. But the Nanooks would go on a 10-2 run across 2:05 to cut it to two at 63-61.
Seattle went back up by six with 1:28 to play on a 3-pointer from Betsy Kingma and a free-throw by Suzanna Ohlsen, but Alaska kept coming back. The Falcons struggled to put away the Nanooks because of late-game struggles at the charity stripe. SPU went 5 for 10 in free throws in the game's final 88 seconds, while Alaska went 3 for 5 from the floor during that same time leading up to Bulaya's halfcourt attempt.
The Nanooks competed right along with the undefeated Falcons in the first half, holding a lead for a total of 4:53 before halftime. Alaska's big advantage in the first stanza came on the offensive glass, where it outrebounded Seattle Pacific 9-4 and scored 13 second-chance points. Skjold had seven of her 11 rebounds in the first half.
Alaska next faces preseason GNAC favorite Montana State Billings, 90-59 losers at Alaska Anchorage on Thursday. The Nanooks and Yellowjackets square off at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Patty Center.
