ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team were stunned by a second half comeback from in-state rival the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves on Tuesday night, as they dropped the Great Northwest Athletic Conference matchup 76-63 at the Alaska Airlines Center.
The loss drops the Nanooks to 7-9 overall on the year and moves the Nanooks into tenth place in the GNAC with a 2-5 conference mark. For Alaska Anchorage, they maintain their half-game lead for second place in the GNAC standings with an 11-4 record overall and 5-2 record in league play.
"I really liked how we competed tonight. We were down 57-52 with six minutes to go and it got away from us, unfortunately," head coach Mick Durham said on Tuesday night. "We missed too many layups and a couple good looks at three-point shots when we needed. Nineteen assists and only 11 turnovers in a game like this is pretty good. We'll learn from this and move forward but hats off UAA's senior leadership tonight."
Senior forward Bangaly Kaba got the Nooks on the board at the 18:08 mark off of a steal from senior guard Brandon Davis. Despite a couple of missed shots by the Nooks, Alaska turned things around at 14:02 mark when redshirt-junior guard Lorenzo Graham subbed into the game. Graham drained back-to-back three-point buckets, followed by a good jump shot to tally eight points in less than two minutes on the floor.
Shooting slowed down for both teams, as neither the Nanooks nor the Seawolves could tally a bucket for almost four minutes in the latter half of the first. Alaska was able to recover by draining free throws but timely turnovers by the Nooks and five UAA points within the last minute and a half gave the Seawolves a 30-27 lead at intermission.
Despite a three-point bucket from senior forward Zach Pederson out of the gate in the second half, both teams experienced another three-minute offensive dry-spell before senior guard Nahjee Matlock gave the Nooks a 33-32 lead with a three-point shot. However, the lead was cut shot as UAA's Spencer Svejcar's two-point layup gave the Seawolves the lead they were able to maintain for the remainder of the game.
For the first time in his career, Graham led all Nanooks offensively, with a team-best 14 points. Off the bench, Graham hit five of his eight field goal attempts against UAA, including 4-of-6 from three-point territory. Graham also chipped in one offensive rebound in his second-straight double-digit scoring game.
Pederson and Matlock were the only other Nanooks to score double-digit figures on Tuesday, as both collected 10 points each. Kaba and Kluting both pulled down five rebounds against the Seawolves for a team-high.
Alaska Anchorage's Svejar tallied a game-best 24 points, while GNAC's leading scorer Sekou Wiggs recorded 17 points.
The Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team will be back in action on Saturday, as they face the Montana State Billings Yellowjackets in a GNAC matchup on Saturday, Jan. 14 at the Alterowitz Gymnasium. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:30pm AKST.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team, follow @NanooksMBB on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks page on Facebook.
