NAMPA, Idaho – The Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team won their second-straight Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest on Thursday night, defeating the Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks 80-74 at the Johnson Sports Center in Nampa. The victory improves the Nanooks' overall record to 6-7 and 4-3 in conference play, while the Nighthawks drop to 7-6 on the season and 3-4 in league games.
"We had a good team effort today that helped us grab a tough conference win on the road," head coach
Mick Durham said on Thursday. "We had a good balance offensively with five of our guys scoring double-digit figures. I also thought we shot the three-pointer well tonight, making 14 buckets. We didn't play great in the first half but stayed within range and played much better defensively in the second half. Thankfully, we hit some big shots late in the game to seal the victory."
In a first half that saw five tie scores and nine lead changes, neither the Nanooks nor the Nighthawks took more than a five-point lead over their opponent throughout the majority of the first 20 minutes. At the 3:03 mark, Northwest Nazarene went up seven points over Alaska but the Nooks clawed their way back to only trail NNU 44-40 at halftime.
The Nighthawks held on to the lead until the 15:41 mark of the second half when junior guard
Davis Kimble shot back-to-back three-pointers to five the Nooks a 54-50 lead. The Nooks' hot shooting held of the home team until the 3:51 mark when the Nighthawks stormed back to take a 67-66 lead with a timely three-pointer by NNU's Obi Megwa.
After tying the game 69-69 at the 3:00 mark, Alaska outscored their opponent in the final three minutes of regulation 11-5 with six good free throws to seal their fourth conference victory of the season.
As a team, the Nanooks shot 49.2 percent from the floor (29-for-59), 45.2 percent from behind the arc (14-for-31) and 72.7 percent from the free throw line (8-for-11). Alaska also picked up 26 rebounds, 16 assists, seven steals and three blocks against the Nighthawks.
The Nanooks were led offensively by junior forward
Alex Baham, who shot 5-for-8 from three-point range and 2-for-2 from the free-throw line to tally 17 points on the night. Baham also collected five rebounds and four assists in 29 minutes on the court.
Kimble followed closely behind with a 16-point performance, shooting 6-for-13 from the floor, 3-for-7 from beyond the arc and 1-1 from the free throw line. Kimble also chipped in a team-best five assists and two steals in 33 minutes on the floor.
Senior forward
LaDonavan Wilder collected 12 points and a team-best seven rebounds, while junior guard
Tre Eisenhut and junior forward
Amenofis Mitchell tallied 11 points and 10 points, respectively. H
The Nighthawks were led by Jayden Bezzant, who shot 9-for-14 from the field, 3-for-5 from three-point range and 3-for-4 from the free throw line to total a game-high 24 points.
The Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team will continue conference play on the road, as they head to Ellensburg, Washington to take on the Central Washington Wildcats on Saturday, Jan. 13. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:30pm AKST.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team, follow @NanooksMBB on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks page on Facebook.
