Men's basketball storms back but falls short, 71-69, at UAA
February 19, 2013
Jamie Foland
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Alaska trailed by as many as 13 points in the second half but a late surge fell short after a pair of misses inside the paint in the closing moments allowed for rival Alaska Anchorage to squeak out a 71-69 Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's basketball victory Saturday night at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.
The Seawolves (16-6, 9-5 GNAC) extended their win streak to an all-time best 15 in a row over the Nanooks (13-9, 8-6 GNAC) and clinched a spot in the 2013 GNAC Championship due to Western Oregon's loss earlier Saturday at No. 2 Western Washington. The 'Nooks are now all alone in fourth place in the league standings and can clinch a tournament spot next week.
"It was a great atmosphere," head coach Mick Durham said. "It's just disappointing that we didn't finish it but they hit a couple big shots to make the difference. We'll learn from it and I'm really proud of how we came back. It's just disappointing because we had a chance and you don't get many chances to win in this building.
UAA led 60-47 with 8:27 to play but the Alaska offense awoke and began to chip away at the deficit. Junior forward Andrew Kelly (Gilbert, Ariz./Justice) hit a jumper with 8:09 to go to spark a 12-1 run, which cut the Anchorage advantage to two at 61-59 with 5:06 remaining.
After Liam Gibcus' layup doubled the lead, senior forward Zach Ngawaka (Keysborough, Australia/History) had a layup of his own off an offensive rebound and junior center Sergej Pucar (Belgrade, Serbia/Business administration) answered that with a three pointer with 2:56 remaining that gave Alaska its first lead of the second half at 64-63.
"We had to change our mentality," Durham said of the team's deficit. "We starting being more aggressive, kept it simple, tried to get a couple stops and get some fast breaks. We did a good enough job to sneak back the whole way to take the lead."
Anchorage regained the lead at 67-66 but Pucar scored three points the hard way with 1:04 to go to give the Nanooks a 69-67 lead. On the ensuing possession, Teancum Staffordwas fouled on a three and made all three shots with 48.9 to go to put UAA up 70-69.
Junior guard Ronnie Baker (Vallejo, Calif./Communication) drove inside and his jumper in the paint fell off the rim and after UAA made one of two free throws to lead 71-69, Baker once again went up for a contested layup with single-digit seconds remaining and the ball rolled around the rim and off the mark.
UAA missed the first free throw with 3.5 seconds to go and purposely missed the second and Alaska called timeout with 3.0 left. The Nanooks brought it up court quickly but a pass was tipped by a UAA defender and the clock ran out, giving the Seawolves the win.
"I thought we did a nice job with what we wanted to get done offensively," Durham said. "Defensively, we needed that big stop. Leckband hit a three at the shot clock buzzer and Stafford got us up in the air. We had a tough time staying down on the ground tonight. That was probably the key, they would lift us up and get the foul on the three numerous times."
Stafford, who missed the previous meeting in Fairbanks, finished with Seawolf-bests of 18 points and six rebounds while Kyle Fossman and Abebe Demissie each had 16 points. Gibcus also contributed 10 points while Christian Leckband had seven points and six rebounds.
The Nanooks were led by Baker, who scored 17 of his game-high 20 points in the second half. He also tied for game-high honors with seven rebounds. Pucar pitched in 12 points, all in the second half, and Ngawaka contributed 11 points. Kelly had nine points and tied Baker with seven rebounds and junior guard Pat Voeut (Bellingham, Wash./Communication) finished with nine points and seven assists.
"Ronnie got going, he hit a couple shots and he was the only one we had going early in the second half," Durham said. "That was nice to see and he had a good ball game."
Alaska shot just under 46 percent (25-55) for the game while UAA was just below that at 44 percent (20-45) shooting. The Nanooks won the rebounding war 34-25, including 9-5 on the offensive glass. Alaska was more efficient from the charity stripe, at 13-of-17 (.765) but the Seawolves went to the line twice as many times, cashing in on 23 free throws (.676).
The 'Nooks return home next week to host second-ranked Western Washington Thursday at 7 p.m. and Simon Fraser Saturday at 3:15 p.m. Saturday will also be Senior Day for Dominique Brinson and Zach Ngawaka.