FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks women's basketball team grabbed a win on Saturday, Feb. 1, 82-73 in a tightly contested game against Saint Martin's. The win snaps a 10-game losing streak and improves their record to 7-14 and 2-10 in GNAC play.
 
The 'Nooks got off to a quick 10-0 lead to start the game, but allowed the Saints to tie it with 10 straight points of their own. After the Saints small run to tie the game up, the Nanooks fell behind when Makenna Schultz of the Saints made it 15-19 on a jumper in the paint. Despite trailing, the Nanooks never fell too far behind, working back to a tie at 27-27 after a Sabrina Ungaro three-pointer. Ungaro led the team with 11 first half points and ended the first half with a steal that eventually made its way to Sam Tolliver for a jumper to end the half and give Alaska back the lead, 34-32.
 
While it was close much of the 2^nd half, the Nanooks held a lot of the control, showing great ball security throughout, only turning the ball over once and posting a season high 31-point 4^th quarter. Jocelyn Gandara scored 21 points in a dominant 2^nd half performance. With just over two minutes remaining, the Nanooks pushed their lead to 11 from free-throws by Brittany Richards, putting the game out of reach for the Saints.
 
Jocelyn Gandara finished with a team high 28 points, shooting 12-26 from the field and 4-7 from the stripe, on top of eight rebounds, three assists and two steals. Richards finished with a career-high 17 points going 4-5 from the field and sinking 8-10 free throws. Ungaro recorded 4 steals and scored 15 points, going 3-4 from beyond the arc and 5-9 overall with two free throws.
 
Alaska finished 30-69 from the field, 6-20 from the three point line and 16-22 on free throws. They also hauled in 33 boards and grabbed 11 steals.
 
After securing their second GNAC victory, the Nanooks find themselves only a half game behind Concordia and Western Oregon with 8 games left in the regular season. The next game for the Nanooks will be Thursday, Feb. 6 at Central Washington at g   Nicholson Pavilion at 4:15 pm.
 
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.