Box Score Photo Gallery
FAIRBANKS - Alaska honored its two women's basketball seniors prior to the start of Thursday's game as forwards
Ruth O'Neal (Fort Washakie, Wyo./Justice) and
Samantha Thornton (Bremerton, Wash./Business Administration) played the final home game of their respective careers at the Patty Center.
Going toe-to-toe with one of the top teams in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, the Nanooks (9-15, 3-13 GNAC) had victory in their sights but a late string of threes, including one with 18.9 seconds left by Katie Lowen, lifted the Clan to a 69-67 win.
Freshman forward
Kaillee Skjold (Kasilof, Alaska/Emergency Management) hit two free throws with 1:19 on the clock to put Alaska ahead 67-66. The Nanooks looked to be returning the favor after the Clan (17-7, 11-5 GNAC) beat them with two late free throws on Jan. 23 in Burnaby, British Columbia.
Alaska got the defensive stop it needed on the other end, forcing a missed layup from the GNAC's leading scorer Erin Chambers with 1:08 left in the game. But freshman guard
Victoria Milton (Lansing, Mich./Business Adminstration) gave it back to the Clan on the other end with an offensive foul, leaving SFU with 41 seconds on the clock to set up Lowen's eventual game-winner.
Alaska had two "final" possessions of the game with a chance to win or tie. On the first opportunity, Milton brought the ball up the court after Lowen's 3-pointer and drove the lane with five seconds left, hoping to at least draw contact, but she missed the layup and did not get a whistle from the officials, giving the ball back to Simon Fraser.
After Milton was called for an intentional foul on the ensuing inbounds, SFU's Ellen Kett missed both of her free throws, keeping the score at 69-67. Simon Fraser was awarded possession following the missed free throws because of the intentional foul call, but Kett's inbounds pass was too high and ended up in the hands of junior guard
Benissa Bulaya (Sacramento, Calif./Communication). Bulaya dribbled to the top of the key and heaved up an underhanded shot attempt, but the shot fell short as the buzzer sounded, ending the game.
The Clan struggled to shoot from outside, missing 22 of their first 23 long-range attempts, but shot 5-for-8 in the final 6:15 from 3-point land to mount a comeback which saw SFU down 13 with less than 12 minutes to play.
Chambers finished with a game-high 22 points to go with six rebounds, while Chelsea Reist and Lowen had 14 and 12, respectively. Lowen hit four of the team's six treys in the win. SFU shot 41 percent (27 for 66) from the floor but was only 19 percent (6 for 31) from beyond the arc in a game which saw 11 ties and 13 lead changes.
Alaska was paced by a team-best 16 points from Skjold as she also finished with six rebounds. Bulaya had 15 points while Thornton came off the bench to score a season-high 13 points and tie Skjold for a team-high two 3-pointers made.
The Nanooks shot 40 percent (25 for 62) for the game and from long range (6 for 15) against a SFU team which came into the night with the nation's second-best three-point shooting defense, limiting opponents to 24.2 percent. The 'Nooks out rebounded the Clan 42-39, including 17-15 on the offensive glass.
Alaska concludes its season on the road next week with games Thursday and Saturday at Montana State Billings and Seattle Pacific, respectively.
