Monday, December 23, 2013

PORTLAND, Ore. - GNAC teams won 13 of 18 games as they completed the 2013 portion of their schedules last week.  Action resumes on Jan. 2 with four conference contests including a matchup in Anchorage between  defending champion Western Washington and Alaska Anchorage.

Elsewhere on Jan. 2, Simon Fraser will play at Alaska Fairbanks, Montana State Billings will visit Saint Martin's and Seattle Pacific will travel to Monmouth to take on Western Oregon.  Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene will resume their slates on Jan. 4 in Nampa.

Conference teams completed the non-conference portion of their schedules with a combined won-loss record of 54-34, including 29-28 against Division II opponents.

Alaska Anchorage, Seattle Pacific, Western Oregon and Saint Martin's all closed out their pre-Christmas slates with two wins.  Alaska Fairbanks and Simon Fraser won their only contests, while MSU Billings split is two official games. 

Central Washington and Western Washington, meanwhile, each lost twice in Las Vegas and were 1-2 on the week.  Northwest Nazarene was idle.

Here are some of last week's highlights:

Alaska Anchorage: The Seawolves set four GNAC records in defeating Northland International 140-88 and 111-58. UAA set conference game records for points, three-pointers made (27) and assists (41) in the first game.  Guard Brian McGill had 20 assists in the first game, setting a conference record. UAA made 47 of 99 three-pointers in its two wins as Travis Thompson made 14 of 23 in netting 64 points. Kyle Fossman made 10 of 24 from the arc.  Fossman netted 37 points increasing his career point total to 932.

Alaska Fairbanks:  Ronnie Baker had 18 points and Andrew Kelly had 16 rebounds in a 84-66 win over Northland International as the Nanooks improved to 4-0 at home.

Central Washington: The Wildcats sustained two four-point losses in the Las Vegas South Point Holiday Hoops Classic, one to unbeaten Tarleton State (75-71) and one to previous winless West Florida (77-73).  JB Pillard had 38 points and Mark McLaughlin had 36 in the two contests. Counting a win earlier in the week over Canadian school Quest, Pillard had 58 points and McLaughlin tallied 57.

Montana State Billings: Connor Donaldson scored 34 points, converting on six of 13 three-points, as the Yellowjackets split two games with PacWest schools in the Las Vegas Challenge.  Donaldson also had 12 rebounds.  Jonathan Mesghna contributed 29 points and 15 rebounds.  MSUB also lost an exhibition game with Long Beach State 82-75 after leading 38-32 at halftime.

Saint Martin’s: Ryan Rogers led the Saints with 31 points in wins over Northwest Christian and South Dakota Mines.  The Saints also got 26 points from Evan Coulter and 25 from Riley Carel.  Matt Dodson had a team-high 15 rebounds and Tyler Copp led the Saints with 10 assists.

Seattle Pacific: David Downs, who had 38 points and 10 assists in two home wins, made eight of 12 treys increasing his career three-point total to 203 and moving into 14th on the GNAC career list.  He needs 17 more to move into the Top 10 ahead of his brother Jeff, who currently ranks 10^th with 220,

Simon Fraser: Elijah Matthews had 17 points and five assists in a 100-72 win over Capilano as the Clan improved to 7-1 in non-conference games.  SFU finished its non-conference schedule 3-1 in region contests.  David Gebru had 15 points and Dillon Hamilton had 15 points in the victory.

 Western Oregon: Rodney Webster scored 35 points and also had nine assists and five steals in earning GNAC Red Lion Player of the Week honora. The Wolves were also led by Marwan  Sarhan (30 points) and Andy Avgi (30 points).  Sarhan was a perfect 13 of 13 from the floor and will take a string of 15 consecutive field goals made into the New Year.  That equals the third longest streak in GNAC history, trailing only a streak of 22 by Seattle Pacific’s Rob Will in 2008 and a streak of 18 by WOU’s Yuri Whyms in 2002.  David Brittenen of Western Washington also made 15 in a row during the 2008 season.

Western Washington:  Anye Turner had 35 rebounds in three games, including 20 against Thompson Rivers, the most by a Viking player since Mike Palm had 20 against Central Washington in 2003.  It was just the 12th 20-rebound game in GNAC history.  Turner also had 34 points, eight assists (the second most on the team) and a team-high eight blocks.  Richard Woodworth led WWU with 62 points, while Austin Bragg had 46 points and 21 rebounds.

For more GNAC highlights, check out the GNAC Weekly report.