ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks women's basketball team defeated the Chaminade Silverswords on day two of their 2019-20 season. The final score was 92-47 in favor of the 'Nooks after they out scored the Swords, 53-14 in the first half. This win improves the Alaska squad to 2-0, 0-0 GNAC after the opening weekend. 
 
The Nanooks grabbed an early 25-7 lead at the end of the first quarter thanks to a team-combined 60% field goal percentage. Sam Tolliver and Kylie Wallace led the way in scoring through the first quarter, as Tolliver put up 11 points and Wallace added eight in the first. The second quarter held a lot of the same for the Nanooks, as they went on to shoot 52.9% from the field as a team, adding an 80% three-point percentage to that. Alaska found themselves with a 53-14 lead at the half. Head coach Kerri Nakamoto felt the defensive tenacity and points off turnovers  led to the early lead and eventual win, "I thought we came out with great defensive intensity early on and that allowed us to get easy buckets off the turnovers we forced. Everyone on the roster was in the scoring column today so that was fun to see."
 
The start of the second half saw the Chaminade offense come alive and the 'Nooks offense slow down a bit. The Swords managed a 30% FG percentage in the third quarter and held Alaska to only 17 shots. While the Nanooks kept the lead and won the points total in the quarter, the Chaminade offense found their stride. CHU hit full stride in the fourth quarter, winning the quarter 15-19 over Alaska thanks to 8-10 shooting from the charity stripe. This, however, was not enough to get back into the game. The Nanooks strong first half seemed to be the difference maker and was the key to Alaska claiming the 92-47 victory. 
 
Wallace and Tolliver both ended the night with 18 points, combining for a total of 14 rebounds. Transfer, junior, Jocelyn Gandara was the only other 'Nook to crack double-digits with 11 points on 4-13 shooting and 3-3 from the FT line. 
 
This win kept Alaska undefeated to start the season at 2-0, 0-0 GNAC and showed a lot of good things in the eyes of coach Nakamoto, "I thought overall on the weekend we did some really good things. We need to continue to improve our consistency and execution but it's nice to open the season with two wins. We are looking forward to continuing to improve with each practice and game." 
 
The Nanooks will stay on the road for the next two weeks before their home-opening games over Thanksgiving week as part of the annual North Star Invitational. 
 
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.