Wednesday, January 2, 2013

PORTLAND, Ore. - Defending GNAC and West Regional champion Alaska Anchorage hosts pre-season favorite Western Washington in an important early-season matchup Thursday in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.

Both teams are off to 2-0 starts in the GNAC and have lost just twice; the Seawolves are 7-2 overall while the Vikings are one of four teams (along with Montana State Billings, Seattle Pacific and Northwest Nazarene) with 8-2 records. 

Other games on Thursday's slate include Simon Fraser (9-1, 2-0) at Alaska Fairbanks (2-7, 0-1), Montana State Billings at Saint Martin's (7-5, 0-2) and Seattle Pacific at Western Oregon (5-7, 0-2).  Central Washington (5-5, 0-2) plays at Northwest Nazarene (8-2, 0-2) on Saturday.

GNAC teams completed their non-conference schedules with a 58-26 record, the second best percentage (.690) in conference history.  Six of them earned points in the last national poll.

Simon Fraser earned a No. 9 national ranking in the Dec. 18 poll.  Western Washington was ranked 20th.  Four teams - MSU Billings (40th), Seattle Pacific (43rd), Alaska Anchorage (49th) and Northwest Nazarene (54th) - were among "others receiving votes.".

AROUND THE GNAC:  Montana State Billings is coming off a 57-54 exhibition victory over Montana State and has won eight straight, including two exhibition wins ... Simon Fraser center Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe, fresh off a GNAC-record 24 rebound performance, will be seeking her 48th career double-double.  That would tie former Alaska Anchorage All-American Rebecca Kielpinski (2005-09) for the GNAC career record ... Bobbi Knudsen needs 32 points to become the 50th player in GNAC history to score 1,000 career points ... For more conference highlights check out this week's weekly release.