NAMPA, Idaho – The Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team refused to accept defeat on Thursday night, overcoming a 14-point deficit in the second half to fuel a 81-72 victory against the Northwest Nazarene Crusaders to open Great Northwest Athletic Conference play on the road in Nampa. The Nooks extend their winning-streak to three games and improve to 5-4 overall on the season, 1-0 in GNAC play, while the Crusaders fall to 2-4 overall, 0-1 GNAC.
"I'm proud of how the guys battled tonight," head coach Mick Durham said following Thursday's win. "It wasn't going our way in the first 24 minutes of the game, but we hung in there and things turned around for us. Down 14 points with 16 minutes left, we played really well in those last 16 minutes and had some timely free throws and some big three-pointers to take the lead in the last four minutes or so. This stretch away from home has been tough, but we're still learning and growing, which is showing us how we have to play in order to be successful."
Senior forward Bangaly Kaba led all players with a 23-point night, shooting 7-of-11 from the floor, 3-of-4 from behind the arc and 6-of-8 from the free throw line to post his first 20-point-plus game of the season. The Houston, Texas native also collected four rebounds, three assists, two steals and one block on the night.
Senior guard Brandon Davis and senior forward Zach Pederson were the only other Nooks to register double-digit points, as Davis recorded 18 and Pederson posted 15. Davis shot 4-of-7 from the three-point line, while also picking up four assists against the Crusaders. Senior guard Nahjee Matlock registered a game-high seven assists while junior guard Spencer Clark grabbed a team-high six rebounds.
Despite a three-pointer from Davis to put the Nooks on the board first, Alaska was down 36-44 going into intermission, shooting 43.3 percent from the field (13-of-30) and 31.1 percent in three-point attempts (5-of-16). The Crusaders also out-rebounded the Nooks 23-19.
Things didn't look good for the Nooks at the beginning of the second half, as NNU came out of the 15-minute break by draining a three-pointer to take an 11-point lead over Alaska within the first 25 seconds of the second. A seven-point run by the Crusaders forced a timeout by Durham, who saw his team trailing 14 points at the 15:40 mark. A fire was sparked by the Nooks, as back-to-back good three-pointers from Matlock and Kaba, followed by a good jumper by Pederson pulled Alaska to within six points at the 13:28 mark. Fouls and missed shots by the Crusaders kept Alaska's momentum going, as the Nooks finally took the lead 61-60 at the 8:05 mark with a good two-point shot from Kaba.
Kaba recorded seven points in the final six minutes, while Davis drained three, three-point buckets in the final ten minutes to seal Alaska's 81-72 victory in their opening conference match.
Northwest Nazarene was led by Maurice Jones, who totaled 21 points on the night, followed by Jayden Bezzant who recorded 16 points. As a team, NNU shot 49.2 percent from the field (30-of-61), 45.0 percent from behind the three-point arc (9-of-20) and 18.8 percent from the free throw line (3-of-16).
The Alaska Nanooks continue their conference road trip by heading to Ellensburg, Washington to take on the Central Washington Wildcats in another conference matchup on Saturday, Dec. 3 at 6:30pm AKST.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team, follow @NanooksMBB on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Facebook page on Facebook.
