University of Alaska Fairbanks Athletics

ELLENSBURG, Wash. -- The Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team concludes its highly successful 2015-16 season this week with a pair of Great Northwest Athletic Conference road games at Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene. The Nooks take on CWU on Thursday, Feb. 25, at 6 p.m. AKT, before challenging NNU on Saturday, Feb. 27, at 5 p.m. AKT.

Alaska enters the final week of the season in second place tie in the GNAC with Alaska Anchorage, both teams are 13-5 in league play, while the Nanooks are 19-7 overall. Central Washington, like Alaska, has secured a berth in the GNAC Championship. The Wildcats are in a tie for fourth with Seattle Pacific at 12-6. CWU is 17-6 on the year. Northwest Nazarene looks to move up in the standings in the last week of the season, as they are currently a half game behind Concordia for eighth place at 4-14. The Crusaders are 8-16 overall this season.

Where To Watch
Both games this weekend will be live streamed for free on GNAC.TV. This is a free streaming service provided by Stretch Internet.

All-Time Series

Central Washington: The Wildcats enter Saturday's contest with a 38-16 advantage in the all-time series. Alaska captured an 82-71 victory in Fairbanks back on Dec. 5. The Nanooks will be seeking its second regular season sweep of CWU in the last three seasons.

Northwest Nazarene: The Crusaders lead the all-time series 19-15. Alaska defeated NNU, 77-72, in Fairbanks on Dec. 3. Like the CWU series, the Nanooks are looking for their second regular season sweep of the Crusaders in three seasons.

Tournament Seeding at Stake
The Nanooks are looking to snap a tie for second place in the GNAC with their archrival's Alaska Anchorage. Both the Nooks and the Seawolves had a two-game road trip to Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene in front of them. Currently, UAA holds the tie break by winning the regular season series, 2-0. Alaska needs to sweep the road trip and have Alaska Anchorage split to secure second place and the final bye of the GNAC Championship.

Record Setting Weekend?
Alaska could possibly set the school record for most GNAC wins in a season if they sweep this week's series. The Nooks are currently at 13 wins and a sweep would set a new program record with 15 GNAC wins. If they split, they'll tie the current best of 14 wins set by the 2003-04 squad. 

A win on the final week of play would also give Alaska its first 20-win season since the 2004-05 campaign.

Hottest GNAC Teams Go Head-To-Head
Both Alaska and Central Washington bring a three-game winning streak into Thursday's GNAC contest. The two team's winning streak is the longest current streak in the GNAC after the Nanooks snapped Western Oregon's 13-game winning streak last Thursday in Fairbanks.

Back In The Polls
Alaska was featured in the NABC Division II Coaches Poll for the second time this season, as they picked up two votes after upsetting former No. 1-ranked Western Oregon, 87-78, last Thursday.

Still Work To Be Done
The Nanooks were able to move up in the NCAA Division II West Region Poll this week, but they are still short of being in the coveted top eight. This week, the Nooks moved up two spots to No. 10 in the West Region.

Williams Streaks Continues
Senior Travante Williams pushed his impressive streak of at least 13 points and seven rebounds to eight games last week. He has also accomplished the feat 13 of his last 14 games. Williams also extended his double-digit scoring streak to 16-straight games. The forward is current third in the GNAC in scoring (18.7) and second in rebounding (7.6) making him one of two GNAC players to be featured in the top three of both categories.

Prince of Thieves 
Williams leads the conference in steals with 61. He is currently picking off 2.35 passes per game. Both marks not only lead the GNAC, but are also the ninth-highest totals in NCAA Division II. Williams efforts has helped the Nanooks to a +3.7 in turnover margin, which is the second-best mark in the GNAC and the 17th-best in the country.

High Percentage Shots
Senior Almir Hadzisehovic upped his field goal shooting percentage to 62.1 last week, giving his the 12th-highest field goal percentage in all of NCAA Division II. The Belgrade, Serbian native leads the GNAC in field goal percentage and is averaging 12.5 points per game.

Scouting the Opposition – Central Washington
The Wildcats look to move up in the GNAC standings this week, as they enter this week just a game behind the two Alaska schools for second place. CWU could help itself by sweeping the Nanooks and Seawolves and capture the No. 2 seed in next week's GNAC Championships.

Central Washington is second in the conference in points per game, as they are averaging 84.4 points per contest. The Wildcats are hitting 47.5 percent of their field goal attempts, which is the third-best mark in the GNAC. Joseph Stroud is sixth in scoring in the conference with his 16.4 points per game average.

Defensively, CWU is giving up 76.7 points per game. A mark that is sixth-best in the conference. Teams are shooting 43.6 percent against the Wildcats.

Scouting the Opposition – Northwest Nazarene
The Crusaders look to put a nice cap off under first year head coach Scott Flemming by reaching double-digit wins if they pick up a sweep in their final regular season weekend. NNU has already been eliminated from the GNAC Championships, but could play the role of spoiler this week against the two teams tied for second in the conference.

Northwest Nazarene is averaging 72 points per contest, which is the third-lowest total in the conference. NNU is shooting 43.0 percent from the field. Bouna N'Diaye leads the team in scoring at 14.9 points per game.

NNU is giving up 78.4 points per game, while the opposition is hitting 45.0 percent against them.

For more information on the Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team, follow @NanooksMBB on Twitter.