SEATTLE, Wash. - The Alaska Nanooks women's basketball team is headed to the 2022 GNAC Women's Basketball Championships as the #10-seed. Alaska (3-19, 2-15 GNAC) ended the regular-season with a 70-82 loss to Western Oregon and will face the #7-seeded Seattle Pacific Falcons on Wednesday, March 2 at 1:15 p.m. AKT.

Wednesday, March 2 vs. Seattle Pacific
Live Video >> https://bit.ly/3vvOH92
Live Stats >> https://bit.ly/3Hzyjqv
Tickets >> https://bit.ly/3vrz6HP
2:15 p.m. PST/1:15 p.m. AKT, Brougham Pavilion, Seattle, Wash.

Last Time Out
The Alaska Nanooks women's basketball team fell to Western Oregon in their regular-season finale. With the loss, the Nanooks end the year at 3-19, 2-15 GNAC and will prepare for the first round of the 2022 GNAC Championships

After one, the Nanooks had a three-point lead. The game quickly was a 4-4 tie as both sides traded buckets in the opening minute. After WOU pulled ahead on a three, the Nanooks answered back with an Ellen Silva layup. Their lead was extended to four as Olivia Kraska pushed it to 11-7 with 4:40 remaining. A Destiny Reimers jumper grew the lead to six as Alaska took a 15-9 lead. After making it 20-14, WOU completed a three-point play with four seconds remaining to make it 20-17 at the quarter break. 

Alaska made it a six-point lead heading into the second, but following their lead, WOU made a run, scoring 10 straight points to take a 23-27 lead. Their lead grew to seven with less than half the second to play. A Paola Perez-Mendoza free-throw pulled the 'Nooks back within three before trailing by four at the break. The first half of the third quarter was strong for Alaska as they drew within a bucket, eventually tying the game on several occasions. Following a 50-50 tie, WOU pushed ahead by eight, and eventually 11 at the end of the quarter. In the fourth, WOU made it a 17-point deficit for the Nanooks with 8:14 remaining. 

Reimers would crawl the Nanooks back within nine with 3:08 remaining, but that was the closest they would get.

Paola Perez-Mendoza led the way for the Nanooks, posting 18 points on 5-13 shooting and 8-11 free throws. She added six rebounds, two assists and two steals. Claudia Diez Marti added a dozen points and Ellen Silva ended with 10.

Quick Hitters

• Destiny Reimers ended the season second in scoring with 11.5 a game, following just Pearle Green who ended the season with an average of 14.8 points per game. 
• Reimers led the team with 6.0 rebounds per game. She grabbed a total of 126 through 21 games and 18 starts with 32 coming on the offensive end and 94 coming defensively.  
• Reimers added 55 assists, second-most on the team, 13 blocks (2nd) and 33 steals, also second. 
• Paola Perez-Mendoza led the way in both steals and assists while running the point for the Nanooks. She posted 89 assists through 22 games and 55 steals for averages of 4.0 assists per game and 2.5 steals per game. Her assists per game was good for third in the GNAC and she led the GNAC in steals per game. 
• Green this season was the only GNAC player to average more than three three-pointers per game, averaging 3.2 per game. 
• Savannah Huerta has added a lift in the Nanooks deep-threat, shooting the eighth-best percentage in the GNAC with a 35.3% three-point percentage. 

Season Matchup
Seattle Pacific won both matchups with Alaska this season. On Jan. 1, 2022 the Falcons came to Fairbanks and won 45-67. On Jan. 27, 2022, the Nanooks traveled to Seattle, Wash. where SPU took another 20-point win, this time by the score 48-68. 

GNAC Format
This season's GNAC Championship will include all teams in the GNAC with rankings based on a Points Ratings System. Western Washington won the GNAC Regular-Season Championship and will be the #1-seed. With all 10 teams qualifying for this season's championship bracket, the games have been broken up between two locations for the first two rounds. Lacey, Wash., home of Saint Martin's will host the upper half of the bracket while Seattle Pacific's Brougham Pavilion will host the bottom half of the bracket. Once through the quarterfinals, the semifinals and championship will be held at the Marcus Pavilion in Lacey, Wash. on Friday, March 4 and Saturday, March 5.

We've got our bracket! Late last night the GNAC Championship Bracket was officially set!

We're off to Seattle to face Seattle Pacific on Wednesday, March 2 at 2:15 p.m. PT/1:15 p.m. AKT! Tickets are now available for the GNAC Championships!

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— Alaska Women's Hoops (@NanooksWBB) February 28, 2022

For more information on the Alaska Nanooks women's basketball team, follow @NanooksWBB on Twitter, @NanookWBB on Instagram, or like the Alaska Nanooks Women's Basketball team page on Facebook.