Women's Basketball | 1/18/2017 5:41:00 PM
FAIRBANKS, Alaska – After splitting at home last weekend, the Alaska Nanooks women's basketball team will hit the road for a two-game Great Northwest Athletic Conference series against the Saint Martin's Saints and the Seattle Pacific Falcons. The Nooks will face the SMU Saints on Thursday, Jan. 19 at 6:15pm AKST before taking on the SPU Falcons on Saturday, Jan. 21 at 1pm AKST.
Alaska Projected Staters
#1 Victoria Milton (5.7 PPG, .403 FG%, 4.1 ASTPG)
#12 Jaylee Mays (11.7 PPG, .424 3FG%, .456 FG%)
#22 Lexi Carpenter (3.2 PPG, .333 3FG%)
#23 Jordan Wilson (22.4 PPG, .591 FG%, .871 FT%, 5.9 RBPG)
#32 Kaillee Skjold (15.1 PPG, .396 FG%, .718 FT%, 9.5 RBPG)
Last Time Out
The Alaska Nanooks split a pair of home games at the Alaska Airlines Court last week. The Nooks fell to Northwest Nazarene 84-77 in a tough, overtime battle on Thursday, Jan. 12 before bouncing back with a 69-56 victory over Central Washington on Saturday, Jan. 14.
National Scoring Leader
After last weekend, senior forward Jordan Wilson is averaging 22.4 points per game, tying her with Western Washington's Taylor Peacocke. Together, the duo is tied for being the top two-scorers in NCAA Division II women's basketball.
In Thursday's loss against Northwest Nazarene, Wilson surpassed 1,500 career points as a Nanook, ranking her fourth on Alaska's All-Time Leading Scorers list. Currently, Wilson is ranked 11th in GNAC history with 1,552 career points, needing only two more points to rank within the top-10. Additionally, Wilson ranks seventh in field goals made and 11th in field-goal percentage in GNAC history.
Skjold Chipping In
Senior forward Kaillee Skjold is also holding her own on the court, as the Kasilof, Alaska native collected 22 points and12 rebounds in the overtime loss to NNU for her seventh double-double of the season, making her the conference leader in that category. In both games combined last weekend, Skjold had 38 points, 19 rebounds, nine assists and eight steals. Skjold has crossed the threshold in both 1,000 career points and 600 career rebounds, currently totally 640 career rebounds. Skjold's 9.5 rebounds per game this season leads the GNAC.
Mays-king it Rain
Senior guard Jaylee Mays leads the conference in three-point field goals made per game with a 2.8 average. The Hardesty, Oklahoma native's career mark of 2.2 treys made per game average ranks sixth in conference history.
Milton Says No
Senior guard Victoria Milton has the unique statistic of leading the Nanooks in both blocks and assists, with a total of 62 assists this season (4.1 per game average) and eight blocks.
Scouting the Opponent – Saint Martin's (5-11, 1-7 GNAC)
The Saints suffered a road sweep last weekend, falling to Western Washington and Simon Fraser, dropping their road record to 0-8 this season. Saint Martin's leads the GNAC in 3-point defense with opponents only making 27.7 percent of their shots from behind the arc. Elln Johansson led SMU in scoring in games last week, posting 15 against WWU and 12 against SFU, moving her to a team-best 13.8 points per game average. Hannah Reynolds leads the team in assists with 51 this season, as she recorded three in the Saints' two losses last week.
Scouting the Opponent – Seattle Pacific (13-3, 5-3 GNAC)
Like their travel partners, SPU also got swept on the road last week, falling 71-61 to Simon Fraser on Thursday before falling 71-53 to Western Washington on Saturday. SPU is ranked No. 5 in the D2SIDA West Region Rankings this week and receiving votes in the national polls. As a team, SPU has only allowed opponents to score more than 70 points in only three games this season, marking their only three losses of the season. Additionally, SPU converted in 20 of 23 free throws last week to overtake the Nanooks as the GNAC leader in free throw percentage, improving to 79.7 percent to rank third in NCAA DII. The Falcons also lead the conference with a 39.4 rebounds per game average. Seattle Pacific is led by Courtney Hollander, who leads the team with 7.6 rebounds per game.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks women's basketball team, follow @NanooksWBB on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Women's Basketball team page on Facebook.
