FAIRBANKS, Alaska – Despite a second-half rally, the Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team couldn't hold on and eventually fell to the Saint Martin's Saints 87-71 in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference game at the Alaska Airlines Court on Thursday night. The Nooks drop their overall record to 6-6 and 1-2 in conference play, while the Saints improve to 7-3 overall and 2-1 in GNAC play.
"We struggled stopping them all night and that definitely affected the offense. I thought Saint Martin's kind of gave it to us early and we just weren't able to recover," head coach Mick Durham said following Thursday's loss. "I mean, give credit to those six main guys, they are a really solid basketball team."
The Nooks converted on 11 of 17 free throws on the night, while posting a 48.2 shooting percentage (27-of-56), with their field goal percentage coming in the second half, as Alaska went 16-of-28 from the floor for 57.14 percent. The Nooks received 20 points from the bench, 26 points in the paint and 12 points off of turnovers. On the night, Alaska posted 25 rebounds, eight assists, three blocks and three steals.
The Nanooks were led by senior forward Bangaly Kaba who shot 8-of-13 from the floor and 3-of-4 from the free throw line to tally a team-high 19 points on the night. The game marks the Houston, Texas native's seventh double-digit scoring game of the season. Kaba also collected two rebounds and one assist against the Saints.
Senior guards Brandon Davis and Nahjee Matlock were the only other Nanooks to post double-digit points on Thursday, each collecting 10 points on the night. Matlock recorded five assists, one block and one steal, while senior forward Zach Pederson registered a team-high three assists and junior guard Spencer Clark had a team-high nine rebounds.
Alaska had a two-point lead early in the first half but Saint Martin's quickly responded by taking back the lead and holding onto it for the remainder of the game, which included a 25-point advantage over the Nanooks at the end of the first half. Despite largely shooting better in the second half and pulling within 16 points, the Nooks weren't able to keep the Saints at bay and dropped their second conference contest of the season thus far.
As a team, Saint Martin's shot 51.7 percent from the floor (30-of-58), while draining 50 percent of their three-point attempts (11-of-22) and 84.2 percent of their free throws (16-of-19). SMU was led by Tyler Copp, who recorded a game-high 25 points, while four other Saints posted 12-or-more points against the Nanooks.
"I think we've got some character guys on our team. We have a short turnaround and we need to regroup," Durham concluded. "We've got 20 conference games and we try to make each game its own entity. We've talked about it. We need to put this behind us and the only way we can get rid of this loss is with a win and we need to have the right mindset going into Saturday's game against a predominantly solid team. This is the GNAC and we need to be better."
The Alaska Nanooks host the Seattle Pacific Falcons in another GNAC contest at the Alaska Airlines Court on Saturday, Dec. 31 at 3pm AKST. Alaska is hosting a "New Years with the Nooks" ticket promotion where fans can buy one ticket and get one free.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team, follow @NanooksMBB on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Facebook page.
