Tuesday, November 26, 2013

PORTLAND, Ore. - The men's portion of the Great Alaska Shootout returns to Sullivan Arena in Anchorage for the final time beginning Wednesday.

Next year Alaska Anchorage's annual Division I tournament will move to the university's new Alaska Airlines Center.

The Seawolves will open the 36th annual tournament at 10 p.m. (Alaska time) against Texas Christian. 

Other teams entered include Tulsa, Indiana State, Pepperdine, Green Bay, Denver and Harvard.

The four first-round games (two on Wednesday and two on Thursday) will be televised by CBS Sports Network. 

Friday's semifinals will also be televised along with two more games, including the championship game, on Saturday.

The tournament is one of four involving GNAC teams this week.

Western Oregon hosts the Capital City Classic beginning Wednesday. 

The Wolves will play Willamette in the three-team event on Wednesday and Corban on Saturday.  Willamette and Corbin will play Friday.

Seattle Pacific will travel to California for the Chico Mac Martin Invitational, an event that dates back to the 1960s when it was an eight-team affair. 

The Falcons will play San Francisco State Friday and the host Wildcats Saturday.

Alaska Fairbanks and Northwest Nazarene will join Azusa Pacific and host Cal Baptist for the Cal Baptist Invitational Friday and Saturday.

Elsewhere this weekend, Saint Martin's will play No. 1 ranked Metro State Friday afternoon in Bellingham.

Metro State will then challenge Western Washington's school and GNAC-record 30-game home win streak Saturday evening at Sam Carver Gymnasium.

This week's slate, which begins today with Simon Fraser hosting Kwantlen, will conclude Sunday with Central Washington hosting Walla Walla College.

Led by Western Washington, three GNAC team are ranked in the Top 20 in this week's NABC Division II Coaches poll.

The Vikings, who are 3-0, are ranked seventh.  Seattle Pacific (6-1) is ranked ninth and Alaska Anchorage (5-1) is ranked 19th.  

Baker Leads Nanooks to Three Wins, Earns Red Lion Player of the Week Honors

Alaska Fairbanks guard Ronnie Baker is this week's GNAC Red Lion Player of the Week.

Baker scored 59 points and also had 16 rebounds, 12 assists and four steals in leading the Nanooks to three wins and the tournament title in the GCI Alaska Invitational last weekend at Fairbanks.

Baker, who was named to the all-tournament team, scored a career-high 29 points in Saturday’s 83-72 win over Fresno Pacific.

For the tournament, Baker shot 54.1 percent from the floor (20-37), 53.8 percent from the three-point line (7-13) and 80 percent from the foul line (12-15).   

Downs Earns Second MVP Award, Deadly from the Three-Point Line

Seattle Pacific guard David Downs scored 34 points to earn MVP honors in the GNAC/PacWest Challenge at Ellensburg in leading the Falcons to two wins. 

In addition to his 34 points, Downs also had eight assists and three steals.

Its Downs’ second MVP award of the season.  He was also the MVP in the CCA Division II Tipoff Classic (Nov. 8-10 at Anaheim). 

Downs, who had 21 of his game-high 25 points in Saturday’s 73-57 win against Hawaii Pacific, also earned all-tournament honors in the SPU Tipoff Nov. 15-16 at Brougham Pavilion. 

Downs has made 21 of 35 three-point shots so far this season.  That’s a 60.0 percentage, which would be equivalent, in points produced, to shooting 90 percent from inside the arc.

Simon, McLaughlin Also Earn All-Tournament Honors at CWU

Joining Downs on the all-tournament team at Ellensburg were SPU’s Patrick Simon and Central Washington’s Mark McLaughlin.  

Simon, who has made 18 straight free throws since missing his first attempt of the season, scored 30 points, despite going one of 12 from the arc, and had 10 rebounds.

McLaughlin had 52 points, including 30 in a 100-93 overtime win over BYU-Hawaii.  At one point in the  extra session, McLaughlin, who now has two 30-point games this season, scored seven straight points.  McLaughlin also led CWU with 13 assists and contributed 11 rebounds. 

Kelly Joins Baker on GCI Alaska Invitational All-Tournament Team

Andrew Kelly joined Baker on the all-tournament team at the GCI Alaska Invitational. 

Kelly made 16 of 21 field goal attempts and had 40 points, a team-high 20-points and six assists as the Nanooks went 3-0 in their tournament. Kelly also made eight of nine foul shots.

STATS, ETC.

Seattle Pacific’s Mitch Penner is perfect from the foul line this season (19 of 19) and has made 26 in a row dating back to a miss on Jan. 26 against Saint Martin’s. 

Western Washington scored a GNAC-record 138 points in its 138-85 home win Sunday against Quest.  The previous record was 136 points by Northwest Nazarene against Multnomah Bible in Nov. 15, 2008. 

TEAM NOTES

Alaska Anchorage: All four first-round games plus the semifinals, consolation finals and championship game of the Great Alaska Shootout will be televised this week by CBS Sports Network.  That includes UAA’s first-round game on Wednesday against Texas Christian at 10 p.m. (Alaska time).

Alaska Fairbanks: Baker, Sergej Pucar and Kelly combined for 143 of the Nanooks’ 234 points in their three victories.  UAF outshot its three opponents by a 48.8 to 41.9 percentage, including 41.3 (26-63) to 23.6 percent (13-55) from the three-point arc.  Joe Slocum led the Nanooks with 16 assists and seven steals.

Central Washington:  Kevin Davis netted  31 points and also had 22 rebounds and seven blocked shots as CWU split two games,  Davis made 14 of 23 shots.  Twelve of his 22 rebounds came off the offensive glass.  Davis now ranks 13th in GNAC history in blocked shots and needs four more to become the 12th player to record 100 or more blocks.

MSU Billings: Austin Hudson led the Yellowjackets with 38 points and 20 rebounds and Connor Donaldson had 34 points in wins over NAIA members Rocky Mountain and MSU Northern.  Kalob Hatcher had 16 assists as MSUB shot 48.6 percent from the floor. 

Northwest Nazarene: Mario Donaldson had 37 points, including game-highs of 19 against Montana Western and 18 against Colorado – Colorado Springs.  Donaldson shot 50 percent from the floor (14-28).  Kevin Rima had 28 points and a team-high 19 rebounds.

Saint Martin’s: The Saints  return to action Friday afternoon taking on Metro State in a neutral site game at Bellingham.  SMU, which is 0-4, was idle last weekend. 

Seattle Pacific: The Falcons rank first in the GNAC in field goal percentage (49.2 percent) and second in three-point percentage (38.6) and free throw percentage (80.9).  Alaska Fairbanks is the leader in free throws (82.0) and Simon Fraser is the leader in three-pointers (44.4).

Simon Fraser: The Clan shot 51.2 percent (63-123) from the floor and 51.1 percent from the arc (24-47) in wins over Douglas and Academy of the Art.  Elijah Matthews converted of 12 of 16 and Justin Cole made 12 of 18.  Both players were seven of 10 from the arc.  Matthews had 33 points and Cole had 31 in the two wins. 

Western Oregon: Mirza Sabic paced the Wolves with 18 points in a four-point home loss to Dixie Stat.  Sabic was seven of 12 from the floor and four of eight from the arc.

Western Washington: Richard Woodworth had 44 points as the Vikings earned home wins over BYU-Hawaii, rallying from a 19-point deficit, and Quest.  Woodworth had 22 points in each game.  Austin Bragg contributed 31 points on 13 of 22 shooting and blocked seven shots.  Anye Turner led WWU with 24 rebounds and freshman Joey Schreiber had 29 points, including 14 second-half points against the Seasiders.