SBU's three-point barrage dooms men's basketball, 91-63
November 26, 2012
Jamie Foland
474-6807
Southwest Baptist could do no wrong from beyond the arc as Preston Guiot and Kyle Sloan combined for 13 of the team's 16 three-pointers en route to a 91-63 victory against the Alaska men's basketball team at the WWU Chuck Randall Thanksgiving Classic on Friday afternoon at Sam Carver Gymnasium.
"They got in a great rhythm right from the get-go and this was a team that wasn't playing with a lot of confidence coming in to the game," head coach Mick Durham said. "They have those two shooters who we played last year and Sloan and Guiot lit it up."
Guiot finished with a game-best 24 points for the Bearcats (2-4) after hitting all seven of his three-point attempts while Sloan contributed 18 points after draining six-of-eight from long range. Four other players combined for 32 points.
The Nanooks (4-2) got a team-high 18 points from junior guard Ronnie Baker (Vallejo, Calif./Communications) and junior guard Pat Voeut (Bellingham, Wash./Communications) tallied 11 points, five assists and two steals in his return to his hometown. Junior center Sergej Pucar (Belgrade, Serbia/Business Administration) also contributed nine points and two blocks.
"Ronnie got a few things going in the second half and made some tough shots," Durham said. "It's nice to see him have a good second half. Pat was also fairly solid at the point but there weren't much other bright spots."
SBU, which never trailed in the contest, shot 59-percent (36-61 FG) for the game, including an impressive 64-percent (16-25 3PT) from outside the three-point line. It held the advantage in rebounding (35-29), assists (18-12) and blocked shots (7-3).
Alaska struggled from the field, shooting less than 39-percent for the game and made only six treys on 18 attempts (.333).
Southwest Baptist led by as many as 16 points at 33-17 in the opening half, but Alaska trimmed the deficit to five before Guiot nailed a three-pointer at the end of the half to give SBU a 41-33 halftime advantage.
The Nanooks kept it close early on in the second but trailing 47-42, Sloan hit a three with 16:43 to go to spark the Bearcats to a 23-1 run over 7:13 to give them a commanding 70-43 lead. The Nanooks went nearly eight minutes without a made field goal and never could recover.
"We weren't getting stops and it affected our offense," Durham said. "It's one of those games that you say it's a good thing we play tomorrow because we want to put this behind us and move on. As good as we felt coming in, SBU hit from all cylinders and it looked like we weren't ready."
Alaska returns to action at WWU tomorrow afternoon when it takes on Concordia (Minn.) at 2 p.m.