The Nanooks’ men’s basketball team got its season off to a good start this weekend with two wins over the NAIA’s Simpson Redhawks.

Before Thursday’s game, Coach Clemon Johnson said, “[The team coming together] is taking time, it’s a little slower than I was hoping it would be, but we are coming together.”

The games showed fans what the new Nanooks are made out of, with only three players with game experience returning.

In Thursday’s game, the two teams went back and forth in scoring and were ahead by just eight points at the half. Their halftime talk with first-year head coach Clemon Johnson kicked them in gear though. He told them to get their enthusiasm up, “I challenged them not to let them get the ball,” he said after the game.

Their enthusiasm showed, as they blasted forward to a 110-84 win over the Redhawks.

Junior Colin Matteson was the top scorer with 25 points for the game, and in the second half he was sinking three-point shots time after time. As a team the Nanooks were 7 for 11 on their three-point shots.

Once their lead was firmly established, Johnson had the chance to play some of the new faces that hadn’t seen playing time yet. Walk-on Bo Edwards scored an impressive eight points in eight minutes and that impressive play surely led to his playing for more than 20 mintues in Saturday’s game.

Saturday’s matchup again started with a close first half, although the Nanooks went to intermission on the losing end, 50-46. Many Nanook shots fell short of the basket and combined with Simpson’s impressive 64.3 percent shooting average, the Nanooks fell behind.

“We got a little complacent with [Thursday’s win],” said senior Mike Titus, “Every night on a game night you gotta come ready to play, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing.”

“We just had to get everyone on the same page,” he said, “They wanted to win the game just as much as we did, and we just had to match that.”
Alaska stepped their play up in the second half, as the Redhawks seemed to fall apart. Missed freethrows and missed shots for Simpson, along with stepped up defense from the Nanooks, led to a 16-0 run for Alaska, and put the game out of the Redhawks’ reach.
Edwards, a Fairbanks native and fan favorite, made some plays, including a steal and quick pass to Kevin Atkins to score, that changed the flow of the game.

“I really think that if we had a game ball, we’d give it to Bo Edwards tonight,” coach Clemon Johnson said after the game, “Bo went into the ball game, he started playing defense, then the whole team attitude changed that was on the floor. Everyone else decided ‘Hey, I’m gonna play also.’”

That change in play brought the Nanooks’ score back up, and although not as strong of a lead as Thursday, they finished the game with a 93-81 scoreline. Alaska sophomore Kevin Atkins finished the game with 24 points and 16 rebounds.
Despite the team’s new look, it became clear that Alaska’s few returnees were dominating on the scoreboard. Matteson and Atkins both played for the Nanooks last year, although Atkins had to sit out the second semester for academic ineligibility.

“We’re running a very young team so when we get in trouble you’ll see me calling on the guys that played last year to carry us through,” said coach Johnson after Saturday’s game.

“Titus, Colin, Atkins, we know what they’re going to do for us unless they get into foul trouble. Philippe [Jourdain] is slowly fitting into that mold, so now we’re trying to find out who else can come in and help us out. I have no problem going to the bench, I play the people that come to play basketball that night.”

With the weekend’s game being the season openers, it was the first chance the Nanooks had to see how they really play against an opponent.
Matteson said after Thursday’s game, “there’s definitely stuff we need to work on, we need to improve our defense. I like the way we came out and played together, definitely. Unselfish.”

Senior Mike Titus, who has spent four years with the Nanooks, said Saturday that the weekend was also a learning experience. “It was good to see how the team reacted to being down, especially at halftime… and playing through that adversity and that competition shows the character and the heart of our team.”