FAIRBANKS, Alaska – A missed shot by the Northwest Nazarene Crusaders in the final seconds of the game gave the Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team a 73-70 victory in their final game of the 2016-17 season. Senior guard Brandon Davis posted a 22-point night, while fellow senior forward Zach Pederson recorded 18 points to lead the Nanooks to a Great Northwest Athletic Conference win at the Alaska Airlines Court on Saturday night.
Alaska concludes the season going 13-16 overall and 8-12 in conference play, while the Crusaders drop to 12-14 overall and 9-11 in conference play. Despite knowing they were not eligible for post-season competition prior to tonight's game, the Alaska Nanooks played a tough, hard-fought game to give their seniors a worthy send-off.
"We'll take it. In our situation, they needed to win to get into the tournament and we were playing for senior pride so it's pretty cool to have those four guys go out on a high note and end it like this," head coach Mick Durham said following Saturday's game. "I'm not totally disappointed, it's just been a tough year in the GNAC. I just took a look at the standings and it's unbelievably how competitive it was for these past 20 conference games."
Davis shot 8-of-16 from the floor, 3-of-9 from three-point territory and 3-of-4 from the free throw line to tally his fourth game this season posting 20-or-more points. Davis also added six rebounds, three assists and a game-high five steals in a full 40 minutes on the court in his senior night game.
Pederson shot 8-of-14 from the floor and converted on both free throws to tally 18 points for the Nooks while also pulling down a team-high eight rebounds, two steals and one block.
Junior forward LaDonavan Wilder was the only other Nanook to score double-digit figures on Saturday night, shooting 5-of-8 from the floor, 2-of-3 from three-point territory and 2-of-2 from the free throw line to tally 14 points, while also posting six rebounds and one steal.
"He's in there for his defensive abilities, he's long and lengthy and he's our best defensive player," Durham said of Wilder. "The offense we knew was something that was going to take a while. We're going to have to work with his shot in the off-season but it's come a long ways. There's no question, he's the one starter among all four seniors. I think he can play a couple of different positions. He needs to get a little stronger but he's 6-8 and can guard on the perimeter and he's a good kid."
As a team, the Nanooks shot 43.9 percent from the field (29-of-66), 24.1 percent from behind the arc (7-of-29) and 72.7 percent from the free throw line (8-of-11). The Nooks registered 36 rebounds, 16 assists and tallied 30 points in the paint, 19 points off of turnovers and seven points off of second chances.
Northwest Nazarene was led by Maurice Jones and Bouna N'Diaye, who both registered over 20 points against the Nanooks.
"We couldn't get much separation tonight. We were up by 10 and then something would happen, they hit a lot of timely three's to keep them in the game," Durham concluded. "But we fought through it, Wilder and Davis had big three's late."
The Alaska Nanooks say farewell to four senior on Saturday, including Brandon Davis, Nahjee Matlock, Bangaly Kaba and Zach Pederson.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team, follow @NanooksMBB on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks page on Facebook.
