FAIRBANKS – The Nanooks men's basketball team is back in action this week with stops at Simon Fraser in Burnaby, B.C. and Western Washington in Bellingham, Wash. 
 
Thursday, Jan. 6 at Simon Fraser
Live Video >> https://bit.ly/3JAMM7Q
Live Stats >> https://bit.ly/3EUWWg6
West Gymnasium, SFU Campus, 6:00 p.m. AKT
 
Saturday, Jan. 8 at Western Washington
Live Video >> https://bit.ly/3FVl5V2
Live Stats >> https://bit.ly/32Q2efU
Carver Gymnasium, WWU Campus, 6:00 p.m. AKT
 
Last Time Out
It's been over a month since the Nanooks last played. They traveled to Western Oregon and Saint Martin's on Dec. 2 and Dec. 4, 2021 for their first two GNAC games. On Dec. 2, they fell to WOU 99-74. In their conference-opener, the Nanooks as a team shot 41.9% from the field and 31.8% from deep but ran into an offensive explosion from Western Oregon as the Wolves shot 56.5% from the field and 46.7% from deep. Koby Huerta was the top-scorer for the Nanooks, scoring a career-high 22 points and adding six rebounds. Both Willie Thomas III and Mawich Kachjaani added 16 points. 
 
In game two at Saint Martin's, the Nanooks and Saints played to a 30-30 halftime tie, but it was all Saints in the second half as SMU ran away with an 87-74 win. SMU outshot the Nanooks 43.3% to 31.25% in the first half, but the deep ball kept the Nanooks in the game as they shot 38.46% from beyond the arc. In the second half, however, the Saints shot 58.3% from the field, including 46.15% from three to grab the win. Shadeed Shabazz posted another 30-point game, his third of the season and 15^th of his career, the most in GNAC history. 
 
Quick Hitters

• Shadeed Shabazz leads the way for the Nanooks as the senior from Seattle, Wash. is averaging 19.0 points per game this season. 
• 50 – 50 points is all Shadeed Shabazz needs to reach the 1,000 career-points milestone. He would become the 15^th Nanook in program history to reach the 1k marker and would do it after being crowned the 30+ point king after breaking former-Nanook Parrish West's record for most 30+ point games in GNAC history. 
• The Nanooks are looking to keep the momentum against Simon Fraser. For the first time since the 2016-17 season, Alaska swept SFU during the 2019-20 season. They last battled on Feb. 8, 2020 in Burnaby, B.C. and the Nanooks won the matchup 87-85. They also dropped SFU in Fairbanks on Jan. 9, 2020 by the score of 80-74. 
• The Nanooks hold a 7-3 record against SFU in their last 10 matchups. 
• Against WWU, the Nanooks are 3-7 in their last 10 matchups. They snapped a five-game losing-streak to the Vikings in the 2019-20 season using 43 points from Shabazz in Bellingham, Wash. to defeat Western 96-85 for head coach Greg Sparling's 400^th career win. 
• The Vikings got their revenge on the Nanooks in the semi-finals of the 2020 GNAC Championships in Seattle, Wash., beating Alaska 76-64. WWU went on to win the GNAC Championship that season. 
• That win in Bellingham during the 2019-20 season was the first for the Nanooks since the 2015-16 season when they beat WWU 78-64 and only their second since the 2006-07 season. 
• No fans will be admitted to Carver Gymnasium for the Nanooks matchup with Western Washington due to the Vikings recent two-week fanless period that was put in place on Dec. 29, 2021. 
• Senior PG Koby Huerta is the second leading-scorer for Alaska as he averages 12.4 points per game. He is coming off of a career weekend at Western Oregon and Saint Martin's. 
• Quin Barnard leads the way for the Nanooks from deep as the fifth-year transfer is averaging 3.3 makes from three per game. He also leads the way for the most three-pointers made on the team with 26 through eight games. 
• Coleman Sparling leads the way on the glass, grabbing an average of 6.8 rebounds per game. He grabbed a career-high 18 rebounds at Saint Martin's on Dec. 4, 2021, including 10 offensive boards. 
• Shabazz's defense is still menacing to offensive opponents.  He is averaging 2.9 steals per game this season, followed by Sparling with 1.3 a game. 
• As a team, the Nanooks are being outscored on average by 4.4 points per game. They are averaging 76.4 points per game while allowing 80.8 per game. 
• Alaska is getting to the line more than opponents and is capitalizing by almost five free throws a game. On average they are making 15.6 free throws a game while opponents make 10.9 FT's a game. 
• Alaska is winning the turnover game as they're turning the ball over 12.6 times per game while forcing 16.1 a game for a turnover ratio of +3.5. They are averaging 8.0 steals per game as a team, good for T-70^th in the nation. 
• Alaska is 1-0 in OT games this season. 

 
Scouting the Opponents
 
Simon Fraser (6-3, 1-0 GNAC, 2^nd)
The Simon Fraser men's basketball team finds themselves in second-place in the GNAC standings after one conference game. They knocked-off Western Washington on Dec. 4 with an 82-80 OT win over the Vikings. Through nine games, Julian Roche is the leading scorer for Simon Fraser. He is averaging 15.1 per game while also grabbing 9.3 rebounds per game, another team-high. Jasdeep Singh is the second-highest scorer averaging 13.6 per game while shooting 34.3% from deep. David Penney is the key distributor for SFU. He's dished 47 assists on the season, the only SFU player with over 20 assists. He's averaging 5.2 per game. He's also the team-leader in total steals, with 21, and steals per game with an average of 2.3 per game. 
 
Simon Fraser started their year off with an 11-point win over Cal State Dominguez Hills before dropping their next two games to Humboldt State and Cal State LA. After recovering from their two-game slide, SFU defeated UBC, Langara and Western Colorado before falling to Colorado Mesa. They then beat WWU and Douglas College before entering the new year. 
 
Western Washington (7-4, 0-1 GNAC, 9^th)
Western Washington is the only team above Alaska in the GNAC standings. They find themselves 0-1 with their lone-GNAC loss coming to Simon Fraser in the early parts of December. The Vikings started their season with a one-point loss to Humboldt State, 70-69. Their one-point troubles continued into the next game against Cal State Dominguez Hills as the Toros escaped with a 61-60 win over WWU the next day. WWU responded with their return home and defeated Concordia Irvine for their first win of the season. They then beat Azusa Pacific with ease, 83-63, ending the Chuck Randall Classic 2-0. They then defeated #22 Point Loma on their home court, 74-67 moving to 3-2. They'd make it five-straight with wins over UT Permian Basin and the Northwest Indian College before falling to SFU. They'd beat NIC one more time before heading to Las Vegas for the Holiday Hoops Classic. There they defeated Lindenwood before battling the #1-ranked Lubbock Christian before falling 84-74. 
 
WWU is led by Daniel Hornbuckle, the Fairbanks local. Hornbuckle is averaging 15.1 points per game while shooting 49.1% from the field and 49.4% from deep. He is also grabbing 4.4 boards per game and dishing 2.4 assists per game, second most for WWU. Jalen Green is averaging 14.4 points per game for the Vikings in his junior year. The 6-8 G/F shows his presence on both sides of the ball as he is the blocks leader for the Vikings with 10 through seven games played. RJ Secrest and D'Angelo Minnis are a dynamic-duo on the defensive end for Western as Secrest leads the way with 11 steals and Minnis joins him as the only other Viking with double-digit steals, recording 10 through nine games played. 
 
GNAC Standings
It's early, but here is where teams line in the GNAC standings.

1. Western Oregon, 3-7, 2-0 GNAC
2. Simon Fraser, 6-3, 1-0 GNAC
3. Central Washington, 8-2, 2-1 GNAC
4. Alaska Anchorage, 7-3, 2-1 GNAC
5. Saint Martin's, 8-3, 1-1 GNAC
6. Montana State Billings, 5-7, 1-1 GNAC
7. Seattle Pacific, 8-6, 1-2 GNAC
8. Northwest Nazarene, 3-5, 1-2 GNAC
9. Western Washington, 7-4, 0-1 GNAC
10. Alaska, 3-5, 0-1 GNAC

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