FAIRBANKS - The Nanooks men's basketball team returns home for a matchup with the #1-ranked team in the country, the Saint Martin's Saints and the Western Oregon Wolves.

Thursday, Jan. 25
vs. Saint Martin's | 7:30 p.m.
Alaska Airlines Gymnasium | Fairbanks

Saturday, Jan. 27
vs. Western Oregon | 5:15 p.m.
Alaska Airlines Gymnasium | Fairbanks

Watch Here | Live Stats | Tickets

Diversity Night/Elementary Night
The Nanooks will be hosting Diversity Night on Thursday, Jan. 25. Bring a flag to celebrate your background! On Saturday, Jan. 27 the Nanooks will be hosting Elementary Night! All elementary kids get in free - we thank Fairbanks Youth Sports for sponsoring Saturday's event. 

Last Time Out
The Nanooks are fresh off of a road-trip that took them to Burnaby, B.C. for a matchup with the Simon Fraser Red Leafs and Bellingham, Wash. for a matchup with the Western Washington Vikings. They fell in both. Their initial matchup with SFU was postponed from Thursday, Jan. 18 to Friday, Jan. 19 and forced the 'Nooks to play at noon AKST. They fell to the Red Leafs 89-61. The next day, in Bellingham, Wash., the Nanooks fell to the Vikings 119-92 in their second-highest scoring competition this season. 

#NookNotes

• Abdullahi Mohamed's team-high scoring average has reached 15.4 points per game. The senior has a team-high 216 points.
• The GNAC Preseason All-Conference selection is shooting 41% from the floor with a team-high 66 made field goals. He's tied for the lead with 86 total rebounds through 14 games played this season. He has a team-high 14 blocks, 31 assists and has eight steals. 
• Jaycson Bereal, Jr. has found his rhythm offensively as the senior is now up to 9.5 points per game. In his last four games, he is averaging 19.0 points per game while shooting 55.8% from the floor, 45.5% from three and 82.1% from the line. He's averaged 6.0 rebounds per game as well.
• Mohamed over his last five games is averaging 19.4 points per game, adding 18 assists and 5.4 rebounds per game. 
• TJ Doman has been knockdown from the floor in his 15 games this season. He's been a key bench piece for Alaska, shooting 59.2% from the floor in 15.4 minutes per game. He's 29-49 so far this season and is second on the team with 10 steals.
• Nick Hopkins leads the way in defensive rebounds per game with 3.9. He pairs that with 2.2 offensive boards per game for an average of 6.1 per game, tying him with Mohamed for the team-lead. 

Number One Visitor
The Saint Martin's Saints enter Thursday's matchup as the first GNAC team to hold a No. 1 national ranking since Western Oregon achieved the feat on Feb. 15, 2016. WOU's first opponent as the #1-ranked team? The Alaska Nanooks. The result? A Nanooks victory on their home-court.

The Nanooks hope to repeat history this Thursday after SMU earned 377 points in the D2CSC poll with two first-place votes. They jumped Minnesota State (375 points). SMU also currently sits at No. 2 in the latest NABC rankings, trailing just West Texas A&M. 

GNAC Standings

1. Montana State Billings (13-5, 7-1 GNAC)
2. Saint Martin's (16-1, 6-1 GNAC)
3. Alaska Anchorage (14-4, 4-3 GNAC)
4. Central Washington (11-5, 4-3 GNAC)
5. Western Washington (12-6, 4-3 GNAC)
6. Northwest Nazarene (8-7, 4-3 GNAC)
7. Seattle Pacific (11-10, 4-4 GNAC)
8. Western Oregon (4-11, 1-6 GNAC)
9. Alaska (3-12, 1-6 GNAC)
10. Simon Fraser (3-15, 1-6 GNAC)

What's to Come
The Nanooks are in a full-sprint for the remainder of the season. The second-half welcomes nothing but GNAC matchups. This week's slate of games will officially end the first-half of conference play as they head to Alaska Anchorage next weekend on Feb. 3 for their second game against UAA this season. They'll stay on the road Feb. 8/10 and head to Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene. Their next home games after this Saturday won't be until Feb. 15/17 when Western Washington and Simon Fraser come to town. 

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