Photo credit: Molly Putman
Great shooting from the Western Oregon Wolves proved to be too much to overcome for the Alaska Nanooks Men’s basketball team, as they fell short against conference foe WOU 83-51 at the Alaska Airlines Court on Saturday night.
The loss dropped the Nanooks record to 8-11 overall and 3-7 in conference play, while the Wolves improved to 9-9 overall and 4-6 in the conference.
“I think we saw a team that just came in and set the tempo and took control of the game early on,” UAF Head Coach Mike Durham said following their loss. “I was curious to see how we would respond after a win and we just haven’t figured it out yet.”
Western Oregon got off to a hot start in the first half, converting on their first shot of the game from three-point range. After that, there was no looking back for the wolves as they controlled the game and continued to swish in shot after shot while forcing the Nanooks to commit 12 turnovers during the first half. Turnovers plagued the Nanooks all night, as they committed 17 total throughout the game, while Oregon capitalized on those opportunities, scoring 22 points off of Alaska’s miscues.
“We lead the league in assists to turnovers, we don’t turnover often, that’s not us. But once we turned it over a couple of time, I think they might have smelled the blood and turned on the pressure.” Durham said. “It wasn’t going to get easier until we figured out how to solve it and we couldn’t figure out how to take care of the ball tonight.”
Nahjee Matlock led Alaska in scoring for the second straight game with nine points. Senior forward Bangaly Kaba, junior guard Spencer Clark, and junior forward LaDonavan Wilder, each chipped in, scoring seven points each. Kaba and senior starting guard Brandon Davis each collected five rebounds, while Clark led the team in steals tonight with two.
Western Oregon had four players reach double-digit scoring numbers tonight. Bryan Burg led the wolves, pouring in 22 points, shooting 6 of 8 from the field, 5 of 6 from downtown and a perfect 5 of 5 from the free-throw line. The Wolve’s forward, Tanner Omlid was the second leading scorer behind Burg, putting in 19 points to cap off his night, while Demetrius Trammell scored 15 points and Akil Reese chipped in with 14 points.
The Wolves shot an efficient 50.9 percent from the floor, 46.2 percent from the three point range and 86.7 percent from the free-throw line, while also bringing down 35 rebounds to Alaska’s 24 total rebounds.
The Nanooks will travel this week to face the Saint Martin Saints on Thursday, Jan 26, followed by a matchup at the Seattle Pacific Falcons on Saturday, Jan 28.