FAIRBANKS, Alaska – Sharp shooting from the Western Oregon Wolves proved to be fatal for the Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team, as the Nooks suffered a 83-51 loss to WOU in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest at the Alaska Airlines Court on Saturday night. The loss drops the Nanooks' overall record to 8-11 and 3-7 in conference play, while the Wolves improve to 9-9 overall and a 6-4 mark in GNAC matchups.
"I really liked what I had seen from Western Oregon on tape, even though they were 8-9 at the time, but I think we all saw a team that just came in and set the tempo and took control of the game early on," head coach Mick Durham said following Saturday's loss. "I thought we would've competed better than that but like I said on Thursday, I was curious to see how we responded after and win and we just haven't figured it out."
Western Oregon kicked off Saturday's game with a good three-point shot before holding on to that lead for the remainder of the 40 minutes. Turnovers plagued the Nanooks, as Alaska committed 17 total throughout the night, while Western Oregon was able to score 22 points off of Alaska's mistakes.
"We lead the league in assists to turnovers, we don't turnover often, that's not us. But once we turned it over a couple of time, I think they might have smelled the blood and turned on the pressure," Durham continued. "It wasn't going to get easier until we figured out how to solve it and we couldn't figure out how to take care of the ball tonight. "
Senior guard Nahjee Matlock led the Nanooks offensively for his second-straight game, converting on 3-of-6 shots from the floor, 2-of-2 free throws and 1-of-1 three-pointer to tally nine on the night. Matlock also picked up two assists, one block and one steal in 27 minutes on the floor.
A trio of Nanooks tied for seven points on the night, as senior forward Bangaly Kaba, junior forward LaDonavan Wilder and junior guard Spencer Clark all chipped in for Alaska's offense. Kaba and senior guard Brandon Davis tied for a team-high five rebounds, while Clark led the team with two steals.
Western Oregon was led by Bryan Berg, who shot 6-of-8 from the floor, 5-of-6 from behind the arc and 5-of-5 from the free throw line to lead all players with 22 points. WOU's Tanner Omlid followed Berg's lead with a 19-point night of his own.
As a team, Western Oregon shot 50.9 percent from the floor (29-of-57), 46.2 percent from three-point territory (12-of-26) and 86.7 percent from the throw point line (13-of-5), while also collecting 35 rebounds and 12 steals against the Nanooks.
The Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team will hit the road this week, taking on the Saint Martin's Saints on Thursday, Jan. 26 and the Seattle Pacific Falcons on Saturday, Jan. 28 in two GNAC contests. Tip-off for both nights is scheduled for 6pm AKST.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team, follow @NanooksMBB on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks page on Facebook.
