FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team fell in heartbreaking fashion on Tuesday night, as in-state rival Alaska Anchorage made a good basket with only 00:01.8 seconds remaining in regulation to defeat the Nanooks 44-43 in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference matchup at the Alaska Airlines Court.

The loss drops Alaska's overall record to 10-15 and 8-11 in conference play, officially knocking them out of playoff contention. On the other end of the court, the win improves Alaska Anchorage's record to 14-13 on the season and 10-9 in league games.

"I mean, it came down to their kid making a great shot, which is something we would probably rather have him do than reverse penetrate," head coach Mick Durham said on Tuesday. "I feel like we had to play defense three or four times in that last 50 seconds but yeah, it came down to that shot which was good for them but unfortunately, bad for us."

Despite a season-high crowd of 763 fans, Tuesday's tilt was off to a slow start, as neither team made it to the 10-point mark until the 9:46 mark of the first half. Things heated up around the seven-minute mark, as neither team registered more than a four-point lead over their opponent with Alaska Anchorage walking into their locker room at half with a 19-18 lead. The first 20 minutes saw six lead changes and one tie score.

The Nanooks were dropping three's in the second half, going up five points over their opponent on four different occasions before the 10:00 mark. Up 43-38 with 3:37 left, the Seawolves went on a four-point run to pull them within 43-42 with 2:23 remaining in the second. The Nanooks will be haunted by two turnovers and one missed shot within the last minute of play, as UAA's D.J. Ursery made a good field goal with less than two seconds remaining to seal UAA's victory 44-43.

"There's not going to be too many people mad about the offensive efforts tonight, we knew we had to compete and we knew we had to make it hard for them to score and I thought we really did that," Durham continued. "Again, it takes a big shot and that's what it came down too. I told the guys, you can't focus on that last shot. There are so many plays over the course of the game that we made mistakes and did good things. It's disappointing. Our guys put in a lot of work in a short amount of time to get ready for tonight and we battled."

As a team, Alaska shot 36.0 percent from the floor (18-for-50), 27.3 percent from three-point range (6-for-22) and 50 percent from the free throw line (1-for-2). The Nanooks also collected seven offensive and 24 defensive boards to total 31 on the night, while also chipping in a game-high nine assists, seven steals and one block.

Junior guard Davis Kimble led Alaska offensively, shooting 7-for-12 from the field, and 1-for-3 from beyond the arc to tally a game-high 15 points. Kimble also tied for a game-high three assists and three steals in 25 minutes on the court.

Sophomore forward Michael Kluting tallied his ninth double-double of the season on Tuesday, shooting 4-for-13 from the field, 1-for-5 from the three-point range and 1-for-2 from the free throw line to tally 10 points, while also chipping in three offensive and seven defensive boards for 10 rebounds against the Seawolves.

The Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team will hit the road for the final regular season game of 2017-18, as they take on the Montana State Billings Yellowjackets in a conference matchup on Thursday, Feb. 22 in the Alterowitz Gymnasium. Tip-off is slated for 5pm AKST.

For more information on the Alaska Nanooks men's basketball team, follow @NanooksMBB on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks page on Facebook.