FAIRBANKS - In front of their home crowd, the Nanooks men's basketball team moved to 1-0, 0-0 GNAC in their season-opener in the GNAC/PacWest Challenge sponsored by Mt. McKinley Bank. 

Alaska withstood a second-half surge by the Sharks and pulled away with a 69-64 victory. The Nanooks opened up with a strong shooting performance in the first-half, shooting 15-29 from the floor and 4-10 from deep for a 51% field goal percentage and 40% shooting from deep. HPU only managed an 11-30 (36%) first-half shooting performance. They did outshoot the 'Nooks from beyond the arc, going 4-9. Abdullahi Mohamed got the scoring started with the Nanooks, putting them up 4-0 in the opening minute and a half. Jaycson Bereal, Jr. had the other early hot-hand for Alaska as the senior connected from deep three times in nearly a minute and a half. His third made it 22-13 Nanooks with 10:09 to play in the opening half. Paul Johnson would connect from deep five minutes later to extend the lead to 10 at 27-17. Just before the end of the half, Alaska had their biggest lead of 13 on a Nick Hopkins layup off of a Bereal dish. 

HPU would cut into the lead just before the break, pulling within nine at the 1:13 mark. The nine-point lead and 37-28 lead for Alaska would stick into the halftime break. 

Out of the break, the 'Nooks would watch their lead slowly get cut in to. HPU cut it to three at the 15:37 mark on a Melo Sanchez jumper. Mohamed would answer back to cut into the Sharks' run, but back-to-back threes for HPU tied the game at 43-43 with just over 13 to play. They'd eventually grab a one-point lead less than a minute later. The Nanooks rolled with the punch and struck back late; the Sharks held the lead for most of the final 10 minutes. Outside of a pair of ties, Hawaii Pacific had the lead from the 9:16 mark to the 1:06 mark when Paul Johnson connected on a jumper to break a 62-62 tie and give the lead back to the 'Nooks. A Mohamed rebound and outlet pass to Tyriq Luke made it a four-point game with 34 seconds to play. 

HPU pulled within two but Mohamed knocked down a pair of free throws late and Demarcus Hall-Scriven put the game away with one final free-throw, making it a 69-64 final. 

Mohamed led the way offensively for Alaska with 18 points. He also grabbed six rebounds and dished an assist. Nick Hopkins joined Mohamed with a full statsheet, posting 15 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Paul Johnson added 13 points on 5-8 shooting and 2-3 from deep. Bereal ended the night with nine points, four rebounds and went 3-4 from deep. Bryan Nguyen dished a team-high seven assists in the victory. 

The Nanooks are back in action at home at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow against Chaminade.

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