ELLENSBURG, Wash. -- The Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team (RV) locked up its first 20-win season in 11 seasons, as they had five players score double-digits on Thursday night to help the Nooks pick up a huge Great Northwest Athletic Conference win at Central Washington on Thursday night.
The victory keeps Alaska on the pace with instate rival Alaska Anchorage for the No. 2-seed in next week's GNAC Championship, as both teams are now 14-5 in league play. Tonight's win also improves the Nanooks overall record to 20-7, marking the first time since the 2004-05 season that the program has reached the 20-win plateau. For Central Washington, they fall a game behind Seattle Pacific for fifth place, as they are now 12-7 in league play are 17-7 overall.
"We really put together a complete game," said head coach Mick Durham. "We were pretty solid defensively. Got a lot of offensive contributions from people, which helped us score 92 points. We built a lead at half and extended it in the second half. There were a lot of positives from tonight's game. It was a big win to keep us in the hunt for the highest possible seed we can get. One of the biggest differences tonight was in rebounding, where we out rebounding them by 23. Just was just great performance overall tonight."
The Nooks got a pair of 19-point efforts from senior Travante Williams and junior Bangaly Kaba. Williams built on his strong play of late, by turning in his second double-double in three games with a game-high 11. The Anchorage, Alaska native filled up the stat sheet on Thursday, as he also handed out six assists, blocked two shots and picked up two steals.
Kaba almost picked up his second-straight double-double with nine boards to go along with his 19-point effort. The duo helped the Nanooks to a 47-24 advantage on the glass. Alaska picked up 14 offensive caroms on the night, which led to a 20-9 edge over CWU in second chance points.
A pair of post players joined Kaba and Williams on the double-digit scoring ledger, as senior Almir Hadzisehovic collected 14 points and Zach Pederson tallied 10 points. The Nanooks held a 30-point advantage in points in the paint, as they outscored the Wildcats, 52-22. The high-percentage shots led the Nanooks to a 53.2 percent performance (33-of-62) from the field.
Junior Brandon Davis rounded out the list of double-digit scores for Alaska with 13 points. The Spokane, Washington native was perfect from behind the arc, as he hit a team-best three 3-point field goal. As a team, the Nanooks hit 6-of-15 (40%) from 3-point land.
Redshirt senior Joe Slocum tied his career-high in helpers with eight, as the Nooks picked up a total of 19 assists.
Alaska led from beginning to end on Thursday. They took a 10-point lead, 51-41, at the break, and quickly pushed its advantage to 20 points during the early stages of the second half. The Nooks eventually took a game-high 24-point lead and settled for a 21-point victory at 92-71.
The Nanooks could secure the No. 2-seed in next week's GNAC Championships with a win at Northwest Nazarene on Saturday paired with an Alaska Anchorage loss at Central Washington. A victory over the Crusaders would secure the No. 3-seed for the Nooks. Tip-off from Nampa, Idaho is set for 5 p.m. AKT.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team, follow @NanooksMBB on Twitter.
