Thursday, March 5, 2020

SEATTLE – It was Western Oregon’s show in the first but Shadeed Shabazz’s show in the second half.

The junior guard and GNAC Player of the Year scored a tournament-record 42 points to lead the No. 6 seeded Nanooks to a 91-88 win over No. 3 seed Western Oregon in the quarterfinals of the GNAC Men’s Basketball Championships at Royal Brougham Pavilion.

Shabazz broke the tournament record of 36 set by Saint Martin’s Tyler Copp in 2017 and also set a record with a 1.000 three-point percentage as he went 7 for 7. He also tied tournament records with 15 field goals made and seven three-pointers. His performance a 67.9-percent Nanooks’ shooting performance in the second half.

Junior guard Koby Huerta added 18 points in the victory as the Nanooks won their first GNAC Championships game since 2016 to improve to 12-17 on the season. Alaska finished the game shooting 61.8 percent from the field.

With the win, Alaska will face No. 2 seed Western Washington in the semifinals on Friday at noon.

Western Oregon (19-8) finished shooting 52.5 percent from the field and went 63.6 from the field and 62.5 percent from three-point range in the first half. Junior guard Darius Lubom led the Wolves with 25 points while senior guard Dalven Brushier connected for 21. Junior guard Emanuel Gant had six steals, breaking the Championships record of four set by nine different players. This marks the first time since 2016 that Western Oregon will not appear in the GNAC Championships final.

Alaska struggled to find its shooting touch out of the gate while Western Oregon hit three of its first four field goals and opened up the early 8-2 lead on Lubom’s three-pointer. The Nanooks scrapped back in over the next six minutes with Huerta’s fastbreak lay-in bringing UAF within 12-9. Keshaun Howard tied it up with his three-point play at the 10:05 mark while Shabazz’s contested lay-in gave the Nanooks a short-lived 21-19 lead.

At that point, however, the Wolves turned up the three-point machine to streak out on a 17-6 run over the next three minutes. Cameron Cranston fueled the run with a trio of his five first-half three-pointers while Gant capped the run with a three-pointer with 6:18 left to make it 38-27. Two more Cranston threes helped extend the run to 27-13 over six minutes to open the 48-34 lead with 3:41 left. Shabazz did his part to keep UAF in it, scoring 10 points over the final stretch to being the Nanooks within 59-44 at the half. Cranston

Shabazz made certain that the Nanooks would not be left behind in the second half, scoring nine points in a 12-2 run over the first three minutes of the stanza that cut the WOU lead to 61-56. Huerta tied it for UAF on his three-pointer at the 15:05 mark and Quinn Daugharty hit a jumper two minutes later to give the Nanooks the lead back at 65-63. Western Oregon replied with a 14-7 run over the next six minutes with Lubom’s lay-in giving the Wolves a 77-69 lead with 7:45 to go.

Shabazz led the comeback and gave UAF the 79-77 lead with 4:13 to go before fouling out. His teammates picked up the slack with Spencer Sweet hitting a three-pointer with 46 seconds left and Kuerta connecting with 10 seconds to go to seal the victory.