Box Score FAIRBANKS – Daron Mainville produced her best performance as a Nanook in her rookie season, as she scored 22 points and hauled in 10 rebounds to lead the Nanooks to a 82-76 win over Northwest Nazarene on Saturday afternoon.
The Nanooks have now won four straight games and continue their best start to a season since joining the Great Northwest Athletic Conference in 1992.
Arienesha Smith scored 15 points while Briana Kirk and Jordan Wilson each had 12 points for Alaska.
"We played a really great second half," said head coach Cody Bench. "Northwest Nazarene is a tough team and I am really proud of our discipline not only to get stops defensively, but also to score at the other end."
Continued Bench, "We showed the confidence that we have on our home court and we had some players step up big. That made the difference."
Northwest Nazarene edged Alaska in the first half, by a score of 36-29, though they had a ten point lead with 22 seconds to go. From that point on, however, it was all Nanooks, as they opened up a 16-0 run to take a 42-36 lead at the 16:47 mark of the second period.
For the rest of the game, though the Crusaders would threaten to recapture the lead, the Nanooks would never relinquish control of the game, pulling away in the final minutes with clutch free-throw shooting.
The Nanooks used a lethal blend of dominate inside play and stellar outside shooting, as they scored 32 points in the paint while hitting eight 3-pointers, a season-high. Much of that success came from Smith and Kirk, who combined to make seven 3-point field goals and score 27 points. Mainville, Toumson, Wilson and Skjold were key inside, as the quartet combined for 48 points and 31 rebounds.
As a team, the Nanooks outrebounded Northwest Nazarene by a 47-41 margin.
The Crusaders were led by Taylor Simmons who had 20 points.
Alaska will now take its four game winning streak on the road, as it travels to Saint Martin's and Western Oregon next weekend, in GNAC play.
