Pucar earns GNAC Player of the Week honor for second time
February 26, 2013
Jamie Foland
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For the second time in three weeks, junior center Sergej Pucar (Belgrade, Serbia/Business administration) has been named Great Northwest Athletic Conference Red Lion Men's Basketball Player of the Week, the league office announced Monday morning.
"It's good for the team," head coach Mick Durham said. "Obviously Sergej can't do it by himself but he got off to a great start Thursday night against Western Washington with some low post stuff and carried it through the weekend. He's a threat inside and outside."
Pucar led the Nanooks (15-9, 10-6 GNAC) to two home wins last week, which included a 77-73 upset over previously unbeaten Western Washington, ended the second-ranked Vikings' program- and GNAC-record 30-game win streak.
He scored 42 points in the wins with a career-best 26 points against WWU and a game-high 16 points against Simon Fraser in the last home game of the regular season. Pucar shot 53.6 percent (15-28) from the floor and made six three pointers on just 10 attempts. He also contributed 15 rebounds and four blocks in the weekly sweep.
This is the fifth time an Alaska player has been awarded the Player of the Week nod. Along with Pucar's two accolades, junior guard Pat Voeut (Bellingham, Wash./Communication) was given the award twice (11/19, 1/7) while senior guard Dominique Brinson (Juneau, Alaska/Accounting) was a recipient once (1/14).
"You need individuals to have good weeks to get these awards and to win two games on a weekend," Durham said. "We won these awards because the team has won. That was a big win over Western Washington and the win Saturday gave us the opportunity to win the award."
Alaska clinched its first-ever GNAC Championship berth with its win over Western Washington last Thursday and sits tied for third with Alaska Anchorage at 10-6 in the league standings with two games remaining. The Nanooks can finish anywhere from third to fifth place for playoff seeding, dependent on this week's outcomes.
The Nanooks end the regular season with a tough road trip at Montana State Billings Thursday at 5 p.m. (AKST) and Saturday at 6 p.m. (AKST) at fifth-ranked Seattle Pacific. They Yellowjackets are two games back of Alaska and are in fifth place of the GNAC standings while the Falcons clinched a first-round bye and are currently second.