Tuesday, January 21, 2014

PORTLAND, Ore. - Tied for second place and with a chance to move into a first-place tie with leader Seattle Pacific, Alaska Fairbanks and Western Washington open key two-game road trips this week as the first half of the 2013-14 GNAC conference season comes to a close.

Nearly at the midway point, virtually no one has been eliminated from GNAC title contention as just 2 1/2 games separate the top nine teams, all vying for one of the six post-season playoffs berths.

The conference tournament returns to Lacey Mar. 5-8 for the third year in a row with an automatic berth in the NCAA regionals up for grabs.

One of Thursday's important games is in Lacey as the Saints (6-9, 3-4) host Alaska Fairbanks (10-5, 5-2) at Marcus Pavilion.  The game is the GNAC ROOT SPORTS Game of the Week and will tip off at 9 p.m. before a regional televised audience.  Mikeside will be Brad Adam and Dave Harshman.

Meanwhile, Western Washington heads to Ellensburg for a duel with its heated rival Central Washington (8-7, 4-3), likely before a full house.

Wins by the Nanooks and Vikings would throw the race for first place into a three-way tie.

Thursday's schedule will also match Alaska Anchorage (10-8, 3-4) and Western Oregon (10-7, 3-4) at Monmouth and Simon Fraser (7-8, 0-7) and Northwest Nazarene (5-10, 3-4) at Nampa. 

On Saturday, Alaska Fairbanks will play at Western Oregon, Alaska Anchorage travels to Saint Martin's, Western Washington visits Northwest Nazarene and Central Washington will host Simon Fraser.

Seattle Pacific (15-4, 6-2) and Montana State Billings (8-8, 4-4) are idle Thursday until meeting in Billings Saturday night.  The Falcons will take a No. 24 NABC national ranking into that game.

They are the lone GNAC team ranked in this week's national poll as Western Washington, 19th last week, dropped out of the Top 25.  The Vikings are among "others receiving votes" and are 30th overall.

Nanooks Inherit Longest Home Win Streak

With Seattle Pacific ending Western Washington's 36-game home win streak last Wednesday on ROOT SPORTS, Alaska Fairbanks now has the longest current home win streak in the GNAC.  They've won 10 in a row at The Patty Center dating back to a 71-54 loss to Central Washington on Feb. 2, 2013. 

UAF’s 10-game streak is the 20th double-digit home win streak in GNAC history.  It’s the second by the Nanooks, who had an 11-game streak between Nov. 7, 2002 and Feb. 13, 2003.

The Nanooks, however, will be on the road this week where they are just 2-5, including 1-3 on opponent home courts.  Last year the Nanooks won 68-67 at Lacey in overtime.

McLaughlin Trails By Less Than One Point in National Scoring Race

Central Washington's Mark McLaughlin continued his torrid scoring pace last weekend, recording his fifth 30-point game of the season and scoring 54 points as the Wildcats split two games in Alaska.

McLaughlin became the 57th member of the GNAC 1000-Point Club, two days after Kyle Fossman of Alaska Anchorage became the 56th player to reach that milestone.  McLaughlin is the quickest to reach 1,000, accomplishing that feat in his 42nd career game.  His career average of 24.02 is the best in GNAC history.

The high-scoring CWU guard currently ranks second in Division II.  He trails Roderick Perkins of Erskine by just .04 points per game (26.47 to 26.43).  That equates to less than one point.

McLaughlin, who has made his last 32 free throw attempts, matching the 11th longest streak in GNAC history, now has nine career 30-point games.  That is the seventh highest total in GNAC history.  The all-time leader is Parrish West of Alaska Fairbanks who had 14, including a single-season record 13 in 2010-11.

McLaughlin is the highest ranked GNAC player in any national category this week.  David Downs of Seattle Pacific ranks third in three-point percentage (54.5).  Kyle Fossman of Alaska Anchorage ranks eighth in three-pointers made (3.72).

Two players rank ninth - Kalob Hatcher of Montana State Billings in assists (6.8) and JB Pillard of Central Washington in field goal percentage (66.4).

Alaska Anchorage is the national leader in assist/turnover ratio (2.09) and also ranks second in fewest turnovers (8.6), third in free throw percentage (80.5) and three-pointers (12.7) and 10th in scoring (89.4).

Seattle Pacific ranks seventh in field goal percentage (51.5) and third in fewest turnovers (9.0).  Western Washington is third in blocked shots (6.4) and 10th in three-point defense (28.5).

Alaska Fairbanks is eighth in fewest fouls (15.6).  Western Oregon is eighth in steals (9.6) and Northwest Nazarene is eighth in three-pointers (10.6).

NCAA NATIONAL STATISTICS (Top 30; Through Jan. 19):  Team:  Scoring – 10. Alaska Anchorage 89.4; 15. Western Washington 87.4. Scoring Defense – 21. Seattle Pacific 65.7.  Field Goal PCT. – 7. Seattle Pacific 51.5. Three-Pointers – 3. Alaska Anchorage 12.7; 8. Northwest Nazarene 10.6. Three-Point PCT. – 12. Seattle Pacific 42.6.  Three-Point PCT. Defense – 10. Western Washington 28.5; 23. Montana State Billings 29.9.  Free Throw PCT. – 3. Alaska Anchorage 80.5; 25. Central Washington 76.1.  Assists – 13. Alaska Anchorage 18.0.  Assist/TO Ratio – 1. Alaska Anchorage 2.09; 11. Seattle Pacific 1.57; 14. MSU Billings 1.49; 21. Alaska Fairbanks 1.44.  Steals – 8. Western Oregon 9.6.  Blocked Shots – 3. Western Washington 6.4; 30. Central Washington 4.8.  Fewest Turnovers – 2. Alaska Anchorage 8.6; 3. Seattle Pacific 9.0; 15. Alaska Fairbanks 10.3; 19. MSU Billings 10.5.  Turnover Margin – 13. Alaska Fairbanks 4.8; 24. Alaska Anchorage 3.7. Fewest Fouls – 8. Alaska Fairbanks 15.6; 12. Seattle Pacific 16.0; 24. Northwest Nazarene 16.7.   Individuals: Scoring – 2. Mark McLaughlin, CWU, 26.4; 22. Travis Thompson, UAA, 21.7.  Field Goal PCT. – 9. JB Pillard, CWU, 66.4; 17. Austin Hudson, MSUB, 62.7; 30. Marwan Sarhan, WOU, 61.2.  Three-Point FGs – 8. Kyle Fossman, UAA, 3.72; 12. Travis Thompson, UAA, 3.44.  Three-Point PCT. – 3. David Downs, SPU, 54.5; 14. Patrick Simon, SPU, 49.4; 29. Michael Loomis, NNU, 49.3.  Free Throw PCT.. – 16. Travis Thompson, UAA, 89.5.  Assists – 9. Kalob Hatcher, MSUB, 6.8; 15. Brian McGill, UAA, 6.2. Blocked Shots – 16. Kevin Davis, CWU, 2.54; 28. Austin Bragg, WWU, 2.20.  Assist/TO Ratio – 11. Kyle Fossman, UAA, 3.28; 15. Riley Stockton, SPU, 3.23.  Double-Doubles – 21. Austin Bragg, WWU, 7.

LAST WEEK'S TOP PERFORMANCES

GNAC RED LION PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Patrick Simon, Seattle Pacific (F, 6-8, Sr., Ephrata, WA) scored 42 points, including 29 in a ROOT SPORTS regionally-televised game against Western Washington to lead the Falcons to a 76-60 win over the 19th ranked Vikings, halting WWU’s GNAC and school-record home winning streak at 36 games.  Simon shot 72.7 percent from the floor (16 of 22), missing just once (6 of 7) from the three-point line where he has the fourth best career percentage in GNAC history, converting 109 of 232 (47.0 percent).  Simon also had 12 rebounds in two contests, including a game-high seven in a 73-49 win Saturday at Simon Fraser.  He also contributed four steals to SPU’s two victories, its first two wins this season on an opponent’s home court. 

HONORABLE MENTION: Andrew Kelly, Alaska Fairbanks (F, 6-7, Sr., Gilbert, AZ – Chandler-Gilbert) scored 30 points to lead the Nanooks to home wins over Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene.  Kelly, who made 11 of 14 field goal attempts. also had 16 rebounds, seven assists, five steals and three blocks ... JB Pillard, Central Washington (F, 6-7, Sr., Kirkland, WA – Juanita) had back-to-back road double-doubles, scoring 13 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in an 84-80 overtime loss at Alaska Fairbanks and producing 23 points and 12 rebounds in a 95-88 win at Alaska Anchorage ... Anye Turner, Western Washington (F, 6-7, Jr., Olympia, WA – Black Hills & South Puget Sound) led the Vikings in four categories – points (36), rebounds (19), steals (7) and blocks (4) – as they split two games ... Travis Thompson, Alaska Anchorage (G, 6-1, Jr., Anchorage, AK – Dimond) recorded his fourth 30-point game of the season, scoring 34 points in a 92-83 home win over Northwest Nazarene. In two contests, Thompson had 56 points and eight assists.

MORE MENTIONABLES: Austin Hudson, MSU Billings (F, 6-7, Jr., Salt Lake City, UT – Brighton & Central Wyoming) notched his third and fourth double-doubles of the season in road games at Simon Fraser (25 points, 12 rebounds) and Western Washington (14 points, 11 rebounds) ... Derek Isaak, Northwest Nazarene (G, 6-2, Fr., Coulee City, WA) scored 45 points – all on three-pointers (15 of 28) – in two games in Alaska.  Isaak, who came into the week averaging 5.6 points per game, had 21 points at Anchorage and 24 at Fairbanks ... He also had eight assists ... Ryan Rogers, Saint Martin's 9F, 6-4, Jr., Auburn, WA - Lower Columbia) had 19 points and seven rebounds to lead the Saints to a 79-73 road win at Western Oregon.

TEAM NOTES

Alaska Anchorage: In addition to Thompson (56 points), the Seawolves were led by point guard Brian McGill with 37 points.  McGill made 11 of 22 shots, including both of his three-point attempts.  UAA shot just 39.0 percent (53 of 136) in splitting two games, while its opponents shot 53.9 percent (69 of 128).  Teancum Stafford, who had 25 points, had one-third (25 of 74) of the Seawolves’ rebounds.  UAA was outrebounded 77-74 but had just 11 turnovers compared to 24 by its opponents.

Alaska Fairbanks:  Sergey Pucar had 37 points, including 26 in an 84-80 overtime win over Central Washington, as the Nanooks extended their home win streak to 10, its second longest in the GNAC era.  The Nanooks have won four straight overtime games (one this season) and are 4-1 in OT contests in Mick Durham’s three seasons.   With 10 wins, they’ve clinched back-to-back double-digit win seasons for the first time since 2005-06 and 2006-07.

Central Washington:  Kevin Davis had six blocks improving his career blocked shot average to a GNAC-record 2.28 and replacing Brannon Stone of Seattle Pacific (2.26 between 1998 and 2002) as the all-time leader.

Montana State Billings: Austin Hudson had 25 points and 12 rebounds in Thursday’s win at Simon Fraser, then netted 14 points and  11 rebounds Saturday at Bellingham, doubling his season double-double total to four.  Kalob Hatcher had 16 assists (and only three turnovers) becoming the 39th player in GNAC history to record 250 career assists.

Northwest Nazarene: Derek Isaak made eight of 12 three-pointers against Alaska Fairbanks after converting on seven of 14 at Alaska Anchorage in recording back-to-back career highs (21, 24). Matyas Hering didn’t miss a shot (4-4 FGs including two treys) in producing a double-double (10 points, 11 assists) in Thursday’s loss at Anchorage.    Kevin Rima had 33 points, 13 rebounds and a team-high five blocks. 

Saint Martin’s: The Saints built a 45-28 halftime lead, then held on to defeat Western Oregon at Monmouth to move ahead of the all-time series with the Wolves 30-29.  Ryan Rogers (19 points) was joined in double figures by Lucas Shannon with 15 points on six of eight shooting, Isaac Bianchini with 14 (4 of 5 on treys) and Even Coulter with 12.  Riley Carel had 10 assists and five steals.

Seattle Pacific: Patrick Simon made 10 consecutive shots – including five three-pointers - on the way to a 29-point performance against Western Washington.  Riley Stockton had 16 rebounds, 10 in a 10-point, 10-rebound double-double Saturday at Simon Fraser.  In addition to Simon’s 42-point, two-game total, the Falcons also got 32 points and 11 assists from David Downs and 30 points from Corey Hutsen.  Downs has 218 career three-pointers and needs two more to move into a tie for 10th place on the GNAC all-time list with his brother, Jeff.

Simon Fraser: Ibrahim Appiah had 16 points and 11 rebounds against Montana State Billings and 10 points and 10 rebounds against Seattle Pacific as he became the 33rd player in GNAC history to record 500 career rebounds, finishing the weekend in 29th place with 520.   In addition to Appiah’s 26 points, SFU was led by Sango Niang with 29 points and Taylor Dunn with 28.

Western Oregon: Jordan Wiley scored 14 points and Devon Alexander and Rodney Webster each scored 11 in the Wolves’ home loss to Saint Martin’s.  Wiley also had seven rebounds.  WOU shot just 34.6 percent on treys (9 of 26), allowing the Saints eight in 16 attempts.

Western Washington:  Anye Turner had 36 points and 19 rebounds and Austin Bragg had 26 points and 12 rebounds in the Vikings’ two contests.   Bragg ranks ninth in GNAC history in most rebounds per game averaging 7.92 per game.

For more GNAC Basketball news check out the weekly release in the RELATED LINKS.