FAIRBANKS, Alaska – After falling on Thursday, the Alaska Nanooks women's basketball team came out Saturday prepared for battle. The Nooks took the lead early and held on to it for the remainder of the 40 minutes to defeat the Central Washington Wildcats 69-56 in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest at the Alaska Airlines Court on Saturday night.
The Nanooks improve to an overall mark of 7-8 on the season and 3-5 in league play, while the Wildcats drop to 6-10 overall and 1-7 in GNAC contests.
"Central plays really some really tight defense, their switching, their physical and the front really well so our goal was to just execute better than normal," head coach Cody Bench said following Saturday's game. "I liked how we were moving it quickly and being present inside and it was good effort by our team. I'm happy that we were able to finish, we shot really well but it was a team effort."
After recording her 1,500th career point on Thursday against Northwest Nazarene, the Nanooks were once again led by senior forward Jordan Wilson, who recorded 17 points on the night. Wilson shot 6-of-16 from the floor and connected on 5-of-6 free throws, while also chipping in a team-high eight rebounds, three assists and four steals.
Wilson was followed by senior forward Kaillee Skjold, who shot 7-of-14 from the floor, drained one three-point bucket and made 1-of-2 free throws to tally 16 points against the Wildcats. The Kasilof, Alaska native also chipped in seven rebounds, a team-high five assists and three steals. Furthermore, Skjold's seven rebounds crosses the threshold of 600 career rebounds as a Nanook.
Senior guard Victoria Milton collected 11 points against the Wildcats, while freshman guard Lexi Carpenter posted 10 points.
As a team, Alaska shot 48 percent from the floor (24-of-50), 36.4 percent from the three-point line (4-of-11) and 85 percent from the free throw line (17-of-20). The Nooks collected 32 points in the paint, 24 points off of CWU turnovers and 14 points from the bench.
Alaska held their largest lead over Central Washington at the 4:16 mark of the fourth quarter with a 16-point lead. Despite the game tying on two separate occasions, the Nooks bounced back and remained in control of the game throughout its entirety.
Central Washington was led by Taylor Baird, who shot 6-of-11 from the floor and converted on three free throws to tally 15 points and a team-high eight rebounds. Sadie Mensing was the only other Wildcat to score double-digit figures, registering 11 against the Nanooks.
CWU shot 35.8 percent from the floor (19-of-53), 25 percent from three-point territory (3-of-12) and 68.2 percent from the free throw line (15-of-22). Central Washington out-rebounded the home team 35-28 but posted 25 turnovers to Alaska's 18.
The Alaska Nanooks women's basketball team hits the road next week, taking on the Saint Martin's Saints on Thursday, Jan. 19 before taking on the Seattle Pacific Falcons on Saturday, Jan. 21. Alaska's game in Lacey against the Saints is slated for 6:15pm AKST, while tip-off in Seattle is scheduled for 1pm AKST.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks women's basketball team, follow @NanooksWBB on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Women's Basketball team on Facebook.
