Box Score ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Alaska men's basketball team had five players score in double digits Saturday at Alaska Anchorage, led by senior guard
Ronnie Baker's (Vallejo, Calif./Communication) 21 points, but a 27-8 run in the second half allowed the Seawolves to pull away for good and win 96-76 at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex in both teams' Great Northwest Athletic Conference opener.
Baker went 8 for 17 from the floor with two 3-pointers while also grabbing four rebounds and dishing three assists for the Nanooks (4-4, 0-1 GNAC). Senior forward
Andrew Kelly (Gilbert, Ariz./Justice) notched the Nanooks' first double-double of the season with 12 points and 11 boards. Junior guard
Joe Slocum came close to his first career double-double with 11 points and eight assists.
The Seawolves (6-4, 1-0 GNAC) countered with two 20-point scorers and two others in double figures. Brian McGill led all scorers and notched a double-double with 29 points and 10 assists. He was nearly perfect from the free-throw line, going 11 for 12. Travis Thompson scored 20 with four treys and eight rebounds. Kyle Fossman poured in 15 and Christian Leckband had 12 points to go with six rebounds off the bench.
UAA went into halftime with a nine-point, 45-36 lead. The Nanooks cut that to six with a 3-pointer from senior center
Sergej Pucar (Belgrade, Serbia/Business Administration), who finished with 10 points and five rebounds. Junior guard
Rashaad Allen (Fairfield, Calif./Justice) also scored in double figures with 10 points off the bench.
That's when the Seawolves began to pull away with their big run of the game. The run lasted 7 minutes, 31 seconds, and pushed UAA's lead to 25 with 11:42 to play in the second half. Alaska went cold during the stretch, going 3 for 12 from the floor, including 0 for 6 from beyond the arc. The Nanooks committed four fouls during the run, sending the Seawolves to the free-throw line three times. They also turned the ball over three times during that 7:31 stretch.
The Nanooks hung tight with the Seawolves in the first half, matching them basket for basket for the first 8:41 until an 11-0 UAA run turned a two-point Alaska lead into a nine-point deficit. Alaska held a lead or was tied with Alaska Anchorage for 8:56 of the first half. Neither team led by more than four points until a dunk by Leckband during that 11-0 run put the Seawolves up by five.
Alaska takes a break from GNAC play until 2014, but returns home on Dec. 19 for its final game of 2013. The Nanooks host Northland International University for a nonconference game at 6 p.m. Dec. 19 at the Patty Center.
