Men's basketball hosts No. 13 Seattle Pacific & MSU Billings in GNAC openers
November 28, 2012
Jamie Foland
474-6807
The Alaska men's basketball team returns home this week as it opens Great Northwest Athletic Conference play against 13th-ranked Seattle Pacific and Montana State-Billings at the Patty Center.
The Nanooks (4-3) take on the nationally-ranked Falcons (5-1) Thursday night at 7 p.m., followed by a 3 p.m. meeting on Saturday against the Yellowjackets.
Last week, the Nanooks dropped a pair of neutral-site match-ups, falling 91-63 to Southwest Baptist and 65-60 to Concordia-St. Paul at the WWU Chuck Randall Thanksgiving Classic in Bellingham, Wash.
Junior guard Ronnie Baker (Vallejo, Calif./Communications) led the team with 11.0 points per game, including a team-best 18 in the loss to SBU. He also contributed 3.0 rebounds and 1.5 steals.
Other notable players were junior guard Pat Voeut (Bellingham, Wash./Communications), senior forward Zach Ngawaka (Keysborough, Australia) and junior center Sergej Pucar (Belgrade, Serbia/Business administration. Voeut scored 9.5 points, 4.5 assists and 1.0 steal per outing and Ngawaka had 8.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.5 steals while Pucar led the team with 8.0 rebounds per contest.
Alaska shot just 37-percent for the week and struggled from three, converting on just 28-percent of its attempts. SBU and CSPU combined to shoot better than 50-percent from the floor and just shy of 57-percent from long range. The Nanooks were also out-rebounded 77-68 and had11 of their shots blocked while only tallying six blocks.
Voeut ranks 20th in the GNAC with 12.7 points per game while senior guard Dominique Brinson (Juneau, Alaska/Accounting) is tied for 22nd with 12.0 points per outing. Voeut is also third with 5.1 assists while Brinson is second in free throw percentage (.895).
Other notable GNAC rankings include junior forward Andrew Kelly (Gilbert, Ariz./Justice Studies, Law & Society), who is second in steals (2.1 spg) and seventh in blocks (1.0 bpg), Pucar, who is fifth in rebounding (7.9 rpg), and Baker, who is also seventh in steals (1.7 spg).
Game #8: Seattle Pacific vs. Alaska – Thursday, Nov. 29, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. (AKST)
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The Falcons enter conference play with a 5-1 record after allowing just 55.3 points per game in their first six games, which ranks first in the GNAC. SPU went 1-1 in California last week with a 60-55 upset loss to San Francisco State before upending No. 16 Chico State in a rout, 79-47.
David Downs leads the team and ranks 12th in the league with 13.5 points per game while Jobi Wall is 17th with 12.8 points. Patrick Simon and Andy Poling combine for 22.0 points per game as well. Riley Stockton is one of the leading rebounders with 8.3 boards, which is fourth, while Downs and Stockton are fourth and seventh, respectively, in assists with over a combined eight dimes per outing.
Game #9: Montana State-Billings vs. Alaska – Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012 at 3:00 p.m. (AKST)
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The Yellowjackets take their 4-2 record to Anchorage on Thursday following a successful stint in Hawaii, winning Hawaii-Hilo's tournament. MSUB won all three games, including a 67-61 victory over host Hilo but ended the tropical trek with a 97-92 defeat at Brigham Young-Hawaii in a non-conference battle.
Jarrell Crayton is ninth in the GNAC with 14.3 points per game while David Arnold (12.0) and Omar McDade (11.8) also average double-figure scoring. Kalob Hatcher is the league-leading assister with 5.7 dimes per game while Sam Johnson (.583 3PT) and Danny Desin (.500 3PT) both rank in the top-10 in three-point shooting.