Women's Basketball | 2/3/2020 5:02:00 PM

FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks women's basketball team is on the road this week with games at Seattle Pacific and Northwest Nazarene. These games come after a two-game home appearance against Seattle Pacific and Saint Martin's.
 

Opponents	Central Washington University (12-8, 7-5 GNAC) | Northwest Nazarene University (15-5, 10-2 GNAC)
Locations	Nicholson Pavilion - Ellensburg, Wash. | Johnson Sports Center - Nampa, Idaho
Dates & Times	Thursday, Feb 6 at CWU at 4:15 pm Saturday, Feb 8 at NNU at 3:15 pm
Follow Along	Live Stats | Live Video
Social Media	Twitter | Facebook

 
Last Time Out
Last time out the 'Nooks split their home series, dropping the first to the Falcons of Seattle Pacific 41-64 and coming out with an 82-73 victory over the Saint Martin's Saints in the second game for their first win since early December.

Game one of Alaska's return home brought optimism from the start winning the tip and scoring the first points. However, had a 6-0 run to close out the first quarter and another early 11-4 run to kick off the second. With a 6-0 run to end the first half, the 'Nooks were able to keep it close, going into the break down 21-28.

The second half was started with a Jocelyn Gandara three pointer and the nooks brought it within four. SPU had different plans though and slowly upped their lead to double digits to end the third 33-43. The fourth quarter was frustrating for Alaska who finished 2-14 from the field, only scoring eight points to finish the game. Winning 41-64, the Falcons controlled much of the game with the Nanooks only in the lead for 1:21 seconds in the entire game. The leading scorer for the 'Nooks, grabbing her second double-double of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds, was Jocelyn Gandara. Unfortunately, her performance was just not enough to seize the win for Alaska.

Game two of the home series brought a much more complete performance from the Nanooks. Getting off to a quick 10-0 lead to start the game really set the pace for the rest of the game even though they found themselves down 15-17 to end the quarter, they kept things going in the second. Alaska scored 19 second quarter points to enter halftime up 34-32 thanks to 11 points from Sabrina Ungaro.

The third quarter was tightly contested with four ties and two lead changes and ending in a 51-51 tie. The fourth quarter was a completely different story, being completely dominated by the Nanooks. Sam Tolliver scored a three-pointer six seconds into the quarter and the 'Nooks held the lead for the rest of the game. Jocelyn Gandara, 10 points, and Brittany Richards, 12, combined for 22 fourth quarter points to lead Alaska to an 82-73 victory. Richards finished with a career-high 17 points and Gandara finished with 28

Let's Get to the Stats
Jocelyn Gandara pads her lead in the GNAC individual standings with 18.3 points-per-game thanks to her 28-point performance against SMU and continues to lead the team in total rebounds-per-game. Our best defender honors go to Sam Tolliver with 25 steals, 11 blocked shots, and only 43 fouls while playing the highest number of minutes-per-game with 35.1.

GNAC Standings
The Nanooks with the win on Saturday have jumped up to ninth place in the GNAC standings, moving ahead of Western Oregon and Concordia. They now trail Saint Martin's who finds themselves at 4-8 by just two games. They are still within striking distance of the final playoff spot for the GNAC Championships but will have to go on a nice winning-streak to make it interesting.

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.