BURNABY, B.C. – The Nanooks women's basketball team fell to the Simon Fraser Red Leafs on Thursday, Dec. 29 in Burnaby, B.C. With the 89-78 loss, the Nanooks drop to 3-7, 0-3 GNAC. 
 
SFU jumped out to an early 11-point lead in the first quarter before taking a 23-17 lead after the opening 10 minutes. They shot 47.6% behind 10 field goals to the Nanooks 41.7% and five made field goals. In the second, the Nanooks shot 8-19 from the floor with a trio of three pointers while the Red Leafs went 9-18 from the floor with no made threes.  The lead stuck through a 22-20 third quarter in favor of SFU before the 'Nooks won the fourth 22-21 but fell by 11. In the first, Simon Fraser jumped ahead 8-2 in the first two and a half minutes forcing Alaska to call a timeout. Out of the timeout, the Nanooks crawled to within two on a pair of Emma McKenney free throws and an Ellen Silva layup. 
 
Following a pair of Paola Perez-Mendoza free throws to make it 12-10 SFU, the Red Leafs went on a run. They stretched their small lead out to 11 at 23-12 with 2:40 to play in the first. The 'Nooks responded with a 5-0 run to end the first, using a McKenney three with 33 seconds remaining to make it 23-17 after one. Sam Tolliver opened the second with a three before a Destiny Reimers bucket made it a one-point game at 23-22 SFU. Alaska tied it up at 25-25 on an Ellen Silva three-point play. The 'Nooks stayed within striking distance but SFU went on a 9-0 run to end the half and extended their lead to 10 in the final 1:45 of the second quarter. Out of the halftime break, the Red Leafs extended their lead to 14 in the opening few minutes. Alaska managed to pull back within six on another Tolliver three but SFU stopped the small run of momentum and took a 12-point lead into the fourth quarter. 
 
In the fourth the Nanooks got as close as eight at the 6:02 mark but the deficit was too much to overcome. Alaska had four scoring in double-digits and were led by Emma McKenney who ended the night with 20 points on 5-10 shooting and 4-7 shooting from deep. She added three assists and steals and a pair of rebounds. Ellen Silva and Sam Tolliver both added 13. Silva grabbed nine rebounds and blocked two shots, dished two assists and had one steal. Paola Perez-Mendoza was the final Nanook in double-digits, scoring 11 points on 2-4 shooting with seven made free throws, seven assists and five steals. 
 
The Nanooks are back in action on Saturday, Dec. 31 at Western Washington. Tip-off is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. AKT. 
 
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks women's basketball team, follow @NanooksWBB on Instagram or Twitter, or like the Alaska Nanooks Women's Basketball team page on Facebook.