FAIRBANKS, Alaska – Junior Jordan Wilson continued her recent offensive tear on Saturday night, as she scored a game-high 25 points to help the Alaska Nanooks women's basketball team earn its second-straight Great Northwest Athletic Conference victory with a 75-55 win over Western Oregon at the Alaska Airlines Court.
The win gives the Nanooks their first GNAC weekend sweep since Jan. 8 and 10 of last season, as they collected road wins over Saint Martin's and Western Oregon. The victory pushes the Nooks closer to the .500 mark on the year, as they are 7-9 and 2-4 in conference play. For WOU, the Wolves fall to 2-12 on the season, and move into a last-place tie with Concordia, as both teams sport a 1-5 mark in league games.
"I was really impressed with our defense tonight," said head coach Cody Bench after the game. "We got off to a quick start on in the first period, but slowed down a bit in the second. We came back out in the third quarter with some good intensity, which was great to see. Offensively, we wanted to pound the ball inside with Jordan Wilson and Kaillee Skjold. I'm really impressed with Kaillee tonight, she has a great ability to see the floor and led us in assists tonight."
Wilson, who was coming off a career-high 35-point performance against Concordia on Thursday night, recorded her sixth game with 20-or-more points this season. The 25-point effort also marks the 14th-straight game that Wilson has recorded double-digits, which sets a new career-best double-digit scoring streak. The forward went 9-of-13 for the night and was an impressive 7-of-8 from the free throw line. She also added five rebounds and tied her career-high in steals with six.
The forward was one of three Nanooks to score double-digits on Saturday, as Skjold recorded 18 and Jaylee Mays tallied 11. Skjold filled out the stat sheet against Western Oregon by adding a game-high seven assists and grabbing five caroms.
Alaska got a double-digit scoring performance from its bench for the second time in three games. Freshman Marian Wamsley had her best game in a Nanook uniform tonight, as she scored a career-high eight points and tied for the team lead in rebounds with Wilson and Skjold.
"We again got great production from our bench. We had to have some kids step up and they've been doing that of late," expressed Bench of her reserve players.
Alaska shot a season-best 57.1 percent from the field tonight. The Nanooks were able to control the paint for the second-straight game, as they outscored WOU 44-24 in points in the paint. The Nooks were also productive on defense, as they limited the Wolves to shot 39.6 percent from the field and forced 25 turnovers, which is the second-most collected by the team this year. The 25 turnovers led to a 27-14 advantage in points off turnovers.
Bench's team was able to jump out to a 13-point lead in the first quarter, as they scored a season-high 25 first quarter points. The Nooks seemingly could not miss from the field in the opening quarter of play, as they shot a blistering 84.6 percent in the frame. Western Oregon battled back and posted 18 second-quarter points to cut Alaska's lead to eight at 38-30 going into the break.
WOU scored the first two points of the third quarter to make it a two-possession game, but the Nooks responded with an 11-0 run to go 17 with 4:55 remaining in the frame. Alaska maintained its double-digit lead for the remainder of the contest and use another extended run, this time going on a 13-0 run to take a game-high 26-point advantage with 7:13 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Alaska finishes its three-game home stand at 2-1. The Nooks are back on the road next week, as they take on Northwest Nazarene on Thursday at 5 p.m., followed by a Saturday afternoon contest at Central Washington at 3 p.m.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks women's basketball team, follow @NanooksWBB on Twitter.
