FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks women's basketball team showed grit and battled hard but ultimately fell 73-57 to regionally-ranked in-state opponent Alaska Anchorage in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference matchup at the Alaska Airlines Court on Saturday afternoon. The Nanooks drop to an overall record of 4-6 and 0-3 in conference play, while the Seawolves improve to 7-1 overall, 3-0 GNAC.
"I'm really proud of my team, I mean, we only played seven people today, there was bound to be some fatigue factors. Despite what the score was, they were doing what I asked them to and what we, as a team, had planned and I'm really proud of that," head coach Cody Bench said following Saturday's game. "As a coach, you want to see your team have success but it starts with their ability to believe in what you're trying to do."
The Nooks came out in Saturday's contest firing on all cylinders, going on a six-point run to start the game against their in-state rival. Alaska outlasted their opponent for the majority of the first quarter, with the Nooks holding on to the lead until the 1:52 mark of the first. A good three-pointer by senior guard Autumn Childers and a good two-point basket from senior forward Kaillee Skjold with one second remaining in the first gave the Nooks a 13-10 lead at first intermission.
After plenty of back-and-forth rebuttals and three lead changes in the second quarter, Anchorage went on a 12-4 run to take a commanding 30-22 lead going into the long break at the conclusion of the second quarter.
Despite being only outshot 17-18 in the third quarter, Anchorage held onto the lead throughout the entire quarter and even held an 11-point lead over the Nanooks at one point. The fourth quarter didn't see much difference, as UAA held on and captured the victory 73-57 at the end of the game.
As a team, the Nooks shot 47.3 percent from the floor (26-of-55), 27.8 percent from behind the arc (5-of-18) and went 0-of-2 from the free throw line. The Nooks' best shooting half came in the second, where Alaska shot 53.33 percent from the field, draining 16-of-30 shots. Alaska also received 11 points off of turnovers, six points from second chances and 18 points in the paint. The Nooks out-rebounded their counterpart 37-32 and collected 19 assists to UAA's 14.
"Part of today's game plan was to limit turnovers. Anchorage usually forces, on average, 30 turnovers a game and tonight we had 23. Yeah, we would've liked to have had fewer, but against a team like that, that's pretty good, especially considering all the things we already mentioned, fatigue, only playing seven people, etc.," Bench continued.
Senior forward Jordan Wilson led the Nanooks with a 23-point performance on Saturday afternoon, shooting 11-of-16 from the floor and draining one three-point attempt for her seventh game this season with 20-or-more points. Furthermore, Wilson tallied nine rebounds on the day, including four offensive rebounds and three assists.
Fellow-senior forward Kaillee Skjold was the only other Nanook to record double-digit figures on Saturday, as the Kasilof, Alaska native posted 19 points. Skjold shot 9-of-20 from the floor and 1-of-4 from behind the arc, while also collecting a game-high 10 rebounds, three assists and one steal.
Childers chipped in eight points on the day, including shooting 2-of-4 in three-point attempts and posted a team-high five assists, while senior guard Victoria Milton collected seven points.
Alaska Anchorage was led by Autummn Williams, who shot 11-of-17 from the floor, 3-of-6 from behind the three-point line and 1-of-2 free throw attempts to tally a game-high 26 points. Williams was followed by Tara Thompson, who registered 15 points. As a team, the Seawolves shot 30-of-67 from the floor (44.8%), 8-of-20 from the three-point line (40%) and 5-of-7 free throws (71.4%) against the Nanooks.
"We want to compete with the best teams in the league. We did that against Simon Fraser and we did that for some of the game tonight," Bench concluded. "We believe that we can play with a lot of the teams in the conference so, we have to translate that into wins against some of those other teams."
The Alaska Nanooks will take a break and return to competition on Thursday, Dec. 29 to take on the Montana State Billings Yellowjackets in a GNAC contest on the road at 5pm AKST.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks women's basketball team, follow @NanooksWBB on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Women's Basketball team page.
