LAIE, Hawai'i – The Alaska Nanooks women's basketball team erased a 10-point fourth quarter deficit against BYU-Hawai'i on Wednesday night, but a pair of timely three-pointers from the Seasiders' Jiashan Cui, along clutch free throw shooting down the stretch, sealed a 76-71 defeat for the Nanooks.
Alaska (1-2) found itself down by 10 points (59-49) after a BYU-Hawai'i (1-0) jumper at the 8:30-mark in the fourth quarter. The Nanooks cut their deficit to a basket with 6:44 on the clock, as an Autumn Childers jumper capped off an 8-0 run that took just 1:14 off the clock. Alaska pulled even at 61-61, after Childers found a wide-open Jordan Wilson under the basket, who went on to score the easy deuce with 5:27 left in the game.
The Seasiders responded, as they got a 3-point basket from Cui retake the lead at 64-61. Alaska once again pulled even with BYU-H a minute later, as they got another jumper from Childers and added a free throw from Stephanie Toumson to knot the contest up at 64-64. It would once again be a short-lived tie for Alaska, as Cui drilled another shot from behind to arc to give her team the three-point lead back with 3:06 remaining in the game.
BYU-Hawai'i pushed its advantage to six at 72-66 after an old-fashion 3-point play from Emily Nelson at the 1:22-mark, and the Seasiders went on to hit 4-of-6 from the charity stripe in the closing minute to hand the Nanooks the 76-71 defeat.
"Unfortunately we got in foul trouble and missed some easy buckets in the first half," said head coach Cody Bench. "We turned up the defensive pressure in the third and fourth quarters and that allowed us to chip away at their lead. I'm proud of the effort that our girls put forth tonight, but we came up a little short."
Childers paced the Nanooks offense for the night, as she was one of three players to score double-digits. The junior tallied a team-best 14 points and grabbed a career-high seven rebounds in the loss. The Dewey, Arizona native played a vital role down the stretch for Alaska, as she assisted on Wilson's game-tying shot in the fourth quarter and hit a jump shot to pull her team within one with less than two minutes remaining in the game.
"If Autumn hadn't of been here tonight we would of lost by more," expressed Bench. "She had to come in and give us some quality minutes and she really took control of her opportunity. She helped spark the team in the final two quarters and played a huge role in our comeback."
Fellow juniors Kaillee Skjold and Jordan Wilson joined Childers in the double-digit scoring category, as Skjold collected 11 points, while Wilson added 10. Skjold also grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds to give the Kasilof, Alaska native her second career double-double. Wilson nearly missed out on her second double-double of the season, as she grabbed nine caroms to help Alaska outrebound the Seasiders, 52-46.
Alaska will be back in action tomorrow night, as they take on Chaminade at 6 p.m. Coach Bench was not concerned with the short turnaround after a tough loss, and expects her team to respond well against the Silverswords.
"I feel like we have quite a few mature players. We are here for business and they know that. We don't have to travel that far, the gym is really close to where we played tonight. We're not going to worry about tonight and move on to tomorrow."
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks women's basketball team, follow @NanooksWBB on Twitter.
