NAMPA, Idaho -- The Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team took care of its business on Saturday, while getting a little help from Central Washington, and captured the No. 2 seed in next week's Great Northwest Athletic Championships after cruising to an 80-55 win at Northwest Nazarene.
Alaska ends the 2015-16 regular season as the hottest team in the GNAC, as they have won eight of their last nine contests, which includes a current league-best five-straight games, to improve to 21-7 overall. The 21 wins is the most for the program since 2004-05, when they claimed the exact same number of victories to conclude three-straight 20-plus win seasons. The Nanooks, who move to 15-5 in league play, captures the No. 2 seed in next week's GNAC Championship, as Central Washington knocked off Alaska Anchorage in overtime to snap a tie between the Nooks and their instate rivals. The 15 wins also sets a program record for most GNAC wins in a season, as they surpass the previous record of 14 games set by the 2003-04 team.
"Our guys are excited to finish second," said head coach Mick Durham. "We just wanted to play 20 league games and finish as high as we could. Getting this bye is huge. This is the third time I've been at the GNAC Tournament, and I know it's tough to win three games in a row in this conference. Having that extra day off will be nice for our guys this time of year. And shout out to my team. They put in a great effort to get us to 21 wins this weekend."
Alaska continued its late season offensive surge, as they posted 80-or-more points for the fourth-straight game. The Nanooks also collected an above 50 percent shooting performance from the floor for the second consecutive contest with an outstanding 58.5 percent success rate against the Crusaders, which was sparked by a 65.5 percent effort in the first half.
Saturday's offensive outburst was thanks in large part to 10 3-point field goals for the Nanooks. Junior Brandon Davis hit exactly half of the team's trifectas against Northwest Nazarene, which led him to a game-high 20 points. It was the second time this season Davis has hit five 3-point field goals in a game, as he had previously done it against Alaska Anchorage back on Jan. 16 in Fairbanks.
Seniors Almir Hadzisehovic and Travante Williams followed Davis in the double-digit scoring ledger, with 12 and 11 points, respectively. The 11-point outing for Williams gives the Anchorage, Alaska native a double-digit scoring outing in every GNAC contest he has played this season. He also extends his double-digit scoring streak to 18 games.
Fellow senior, Alex Duncan, chipped in 10 points to mark his third double-figure outing in the last four games. Duncan's efforts helped Alaska to 26 bench points. Redshirt senior Joe Slocum had his second-straight eight assist outing, as he helped the team to 20 assists in total.
The Nooks were just as dominate on the defensive end against NNU, as they held a GNAC opponent to under 60 points for the third time this season. The 55 points giving up tonight was the fewest allowed by the Nanooks this season.
"We got off to a great start tonight," stated Durham. "We did what we needed to do early and really built on it. We took a big lead into half and maintained it during the final 20 minutes of play. We had a lot of contributions from different guys tonight. We shot the 3-ball well. Our rebounding continues to improve, they didn't have an offensive rebound at half. We came on the road knowing what we needed to do, and did it."
Seven first half 3-pointers helped the Nanooks take a commanding, 48-22, lead into the break. Alaska did not let up there, as their advantage ballooned to 31 points at the 8:03 mark of the second half. The Nooks also found offensive success down low, as they scored 34 points in the paint, while only giving up 18.
Alaska has earned one of the two byes in next week's GNAC Championships in Lacey, Washington. No. 6 Western Oregon wins the GNAC regular season outright to claim the tournament's top seed. The Nanooks will play the winner of the No. 3/No. 6 game next Friday, which pits Alaska Anchorage against Western Washington. Tip-off from Marcus Pavilion will be at 11 a.m. AKT. For more info on the GNAC Championships, click the link here.
Check back with AlaskaNanooks.com this week for exclusive coverage of the Alaska Nanooks men's basketball stay at the GNAC Championships. Fans can also follow @NanooksMBB on Twitter for all-access coverage during the duration of the team's stay in Lacey, Washington.
