HONOLULU - The Nanooks men's basketball team dropped its second contest in Hawaii, falling to Hawaii Pacific 80-67 on Saturday evening. The loss puts Alaska at 0-2 to start the season.
Chris Lee led the Nanooks with 19 points on 6-of-16 shooting, while Elyon Zevenbergen posted nine points and 11 rebounds.
Zevenbergen scored five of Alaska's first seven points to open the game, but the Nanooks trailed 11-7. Lee followed with a tip-in layup off a rebound to cut the deficit to two, and Isaiah Saams-Hoy scored his first points of the game on a layup, but the Nanooks could not erase the deficit, and Hawaii Pacific responded with a 5-0 run to take an 18-11 lead. A Paul Johnson jump shot ended the Shark's run and started a run for Alaska. Saams-Hoy, Zevenbergen and Ketan Sidhu joined in on the scoring to propel the Nanooks to score eight unanswered points, giving them the 19-18 lead. HPU countered with two straight three-pointers just past the halfway mark of the first, which saw them retake the lead 24-19. However, Lee would take over for the Nanooks, scoring eight points over the next 58 seconds, including draining threes on back-to-back possessions to put Alaska in front 27-24. After HPU regained the lead, Zevenbergen tied things up at 29 with his fourth bucket of the game, and a Jalai O'Keith connection from deep put the Nanooks ahead 32-29 with 03:49 left in the opening half. Following two Sharks free throws to cut the lead to one, HPU's Sherman Brashear knocked down a pair of threes on consecutive possessions, giving Hawaii Pacific the 37-32 advantage. The Nanooks closed the half with an O'Keith layup and Saams-Hoy free throw but trailed 39-35 entering the break.
Lee started the second half with a jump shot in the paint on Alaska's first possession, but the Sharks posted another 5-0 run to build their lead to seven. Despite an O'Keith make from beyond the arc to end the run, HPU responded with six unanswered points to put itself in front 50-40. Lee and Saams-Hoy sank a two and a three, respectively, and Zevenbergen followed with a tip-in off a rebound to bring the deficit down to eight at 57-49. The Sharks would then connect on a three-pointer to regain the double-digit advantage, and despite Saams-Hoy and Lee countering with layups, an 18-2 run for Hawaii Pacific put the game out of reach with 2:28 remaining. The Nanooks ended the contest on a 12-2 run, with Griffin Effenberger and Shiloh Zevenbergen contributing with three-pointers, but Alaska fell by 13.
The Nanooks scored 13 points on second chances compared to six for the Sharks. They also outscored HPU in the paint 28-16. However, Alaska shot 38.5% from the floor and 30.4% from distance, while Hawaii Pacific posted marks of 46.4% and 53.3%.
Alaska is back in action for one more game in Hawaii, taking on Chaminade in a rematch of Friday's thriller. The game is set to start at 8 p.m. AKST on Monday.
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