Tagged: SPU

GNAC Tourney Day #3!

Hoooooly cow. What an insane day of games. One game was insanely amazing; the other game was insanely boring. You may think we’re devastated over SPU losing by thirty. Au contraire. We’re far more attached to Tanner Omlid than we are either of the two SPU seniors. Next year is going to be our hard year; Coleman Wooten graduating, we’re already crying.

Anyway, we’re actually going to talk about the boring game and then the exciting game because it’s the next morning and we’re still discombobulated from the exciting game.

#4 Seattle Pacific 70 @ #1 Western Oregon 97

Defense wins championships. That score says the game in a nutshell. We’ve been complaining about WOU’s offense and not really trusting it because the numbers have been pretty meh, but this was a great example of where WOU really wins: their defense. SPU couldn’t get separation to save their lives and WOU forced tons of turnovers on top of it. It was irritatingly beautiful.

Falcon highlights: Coleman Wooten had 13 points and six boards; Gabe Colosimo had 12 points and a full house; Nathan Streufert had five boards and five assists along with a flawless full house; and Gavin Long had six boards. Off the bench Nikhil Lizotte had 17 points; Hunter Eisenhower had nine points; and Trey Miller had six points.

Wolf highlights: Tanner Omlid had 23 points, eight boards, five assists, four steals, and a full house in just 24 minutes; Vince Boumann had 17 points, five boards, and a full house on nearly flawless shooting; and Riley Hawken had six boards. Off the bench Demetrius Trammell had nine points; Nick Nestell had five assists; Janvier Alaby had eight points; Dustin Triano had 12 points; Brandell Evans had nine opoints; and Buster Souza had five points.

Congrats to the Wolves on getting it done!! Super excited to head to Monmouth!

#3 Saint Martin’s 69 @ #2 Western Washington 68

This game was… Interesting. It was another game when SMU was up and we were like “okay, it’s over, SMU is walking, WWU isn’t coming back,” and then WWU started their press and while they couldn’t get it done… Both teams hit super clutch shots down the stretch and it was amazing. It epitomized March Madness.

Saint highlights: Luke Chavez had 20 points and a full house; Matt Dahlen had 10 boards; and off the bench BJ Standley had 11 points, while Tavian Henderson had six points.

Viking highlights:Trey Drechsel had seven boards and five assists; Deandre Dickson had 21 points, 10 boards, and a full house; Trevor Jasinsky had 14 points, five boards, and a full house; Daulton Hommes had 13 points and 11 boards; and off the bench Siaan Rojas had nine points and four assists.

WWU has to be reeling after this one. Shot 60% from the free throw line, lost by one. Make your darn free throws. That said: We think both SMU & WWU deserve bids in the Regional. We’ll dive into it further tomorrow, but… In brief: We’re not convinced of the CCAA & Pac-West, especially because the in-conference records of their 2 & 3 teams are similar, but they lost non-con to the GNAC, so we should own the tiebreakers.

Alright! Let’s preview the championship game:

#3 Saint Martin’s @ #1 Western Oregon @ 6:15pm PST

Alex Pribble and Jim Shaw are clearly the two best coaches in the conference, but we haven’t been able to decide who’s better. Jim Shaw is a Steve Kerr situation where he came in with pieces primed and then has pushed them into the stratosphere. Alex Pribble started from the bottom, now he here.

We really don’t have an opinion on who wins this game. We lean toward WOU just because they won both of the prior meetings, but you never know. SMU will be fighting insanely hard because they’re considered a bubble team. WOU is going to be fighting insanely hard because for some reason hosting is still on the line; the committee would much rather send the tournament to a California school. Super frustrating PNW pride all day. In our heart of hearts we think WOU will win because defense does in fact win championships AND they have the best player in the conference by far, but we’ll still say…

Prediction: Pick ’em.

Should be a great night of basketball. We try to be more Switzerland for the men, but… We can admit the SPU women are ours and in the championship game, so we will be biased and say GO FALCONS on that front.

The games are being streamed on ESPN 3, so tweet at us if you’re watching!

Be safe, have fun, go GNAC!!

GNAC Tourney Day #2!

Was it a great day of basketball? 100%. We loved it. We’re having a blast. Can’t wait to head back to the arena. We’ll talk about yesterday’s games and then preview today’s games and that’ll be that! It’ll be great.

#4 Central Washington 84 @ #3 Saint Martin’s 87 in OT

This game was amazing. Initially CWU was in, then they weren’t, then they were, then they weren’t, then they were and it went to OT and was super back and forth. With six minutes left in regulation we were like “oh, it’s over, SMU has got it,” but… As we always say: CWU is clutch down the stretch. It was amazing. Some of the best shooting numbers we’ve seen out of them. Ridiculously proud of the Wildcats!

Wildcat highlights: Khalil Shabazz had 23 points, 13 boards, and five assists for the double-double; Malik Montoya had eight points; Jawan Stepney had 11 points; Jerome Bryant had eight points; and Fuquan Niles had five fouls. Off the bench Sage Woodruff had 15 points; and Malcolm Cole had five points.

Saint highlights: Luke Chavez had 12 points; Matt Dahlen had eight boards and five blocks; Jordan Kitchen had 12 points and six boards; Rhett Baerlocher had 10 points; and EJ Boyce had five boards and six assists. Off the bench Jared Matthews had five points and five assists and five points; BJ Standley had 13 points; Tavian Henderson had five points; and Cameron Chatwin had six points.

Proud of you Saints. Not entirely sure what we think of this performance and how it compares to what you’ll need against WWU today. The Saints went nine deep and everyone was fairly productive, whereas WWU only goes six deep, but… There’s a talent disparity in favor of WWU and a coaching advantage along with stamina for SMU. Part of us is thinking “Just push the tempo and you’ll be fine and they’ll be gassed,” but… WWU isn’t apt to allow the pushing of the tempo and while they only go six deep, their clutch factor is in the nines.

#5 Alaska-Anchorage 51 “@” #4 Seattle Pacific 64

Oh goodness this game. The Falcons haven’t played like this since before Christmas Break, although our questions about whether or not they could care for an entire 40 minutes was answered as a “no.” At various points they were up by 20+ but let UAA creep within 10 or 12 several times rather than putting the Seawolves away. Great job to the Seawolves taking advantage of the Falcon apathy!

Seawolf highlights: Malik Clements went 5-5 from the line; DJ Ursery was on FIRE including going 6-6 from the line and shooting well from the field to end up with 24 points; and Brian Pearson had six boards.

Falcon highlights: Coleman Wooten had five boards; Harry Cavell had six boards and a full house; Gabe Colosimo had 17 points and seven boards; and Nathan Streufert had 11 boards and eight points. Off the bench Hunter Eisenhower had 11 points and four boards; and Trey Miller had four boards.

On the one hand we’re decently happy with this Falcon performance. They rebounded, they largely took smart shots (ahem, Nikhil), but… On the other hand, if they lay off like they did with UAA, WOU is always going to be able to take advantage of it.

Alrighty, jumping into the previews…

All times pacific.

#3 Saint Martin’s @ #2 Western Washington @ 1pm

We’re curious about this game. As mentioned: WWU wins on talent, but SMU wins on coaching. The Saints are going to have to play really smart in order to beat the Vikings. We know they’re 100% capable because they’ve done it before, but the conference tournament is a different environment. SMU played yesterday; WWU didn’t. We’re not sure who that’s advantageous to. Regardless, it is what it is and it should be a good game. SMU goes deeper, but WWU has more capable scorers, so… We’ll see what happens. We could see either team winning by 10 or so, or we could see it going to OT. We have no pulse for this game.

Prediction: Pick ’em.

#4 Seattle Pacific @ #1 Western Oregon @ 3:15pm

As an SPU alum, we’re actually really happy to be on this side of the bracket. While WOU has literally only lost one game, the fact that Tanner Omlid played 40 minutes against the Falcons and no other team speaks volumes. We had the opportunity to ask Jim Shaw about it and the answer was unsatisfying, which makes us think we’re onto something. The Falcons got a good warm-up yesterday, but they cannot let off the gas at all, whatsoever, regardless of the score, if they want to win this game. The good news for the Wolves is that their record says they’ll win, but even if they don’t the Regional should be Monmouth-bound, partly because of their own record and partly because of all of the other GNAC schools records against the CCAA and Pac-West.

Prediction: Pick ’em.

Should be a really great day of basketball.

Be safe, have fun, go GNAC!

Conference Game Day #20!

We’re a little confused how this is the 4th “conference game day #20” when we only had 18 conference game days in our first year of blogging, but oh well! It was a really fun night of games, so… Let’s talk about it.

UAA 59 @ MSUB 52

Close all game before UAA pulled away in the last five or so minutes. Really impressive performance by the Yellowjackets. As the UAA men’s basketball twitter pointed out: SFU, Concordia, and MSUB are now 10-50 against the GNAC schools, but 9-6 against the CCAA and Pac-West.

Seawolf highlights: Malik Clements had 11 points and six boards; DJ Ursery went 6-6 from the line and finished with 16 points and five boards; Josiah Wood had 11 points; and Brian Pearson had 12 points and five boards.

Yellowjacket highlights: Kobe Tereshima had 11 points and six boards; KENDALL DENHAM HAD A LEGITIMATELY GOOD GAME!!!!!! He had 10 points and eight boards. We’ll miss you Kendall! 😘 And off the bench Sven Jeuschede had 12 points and five fouls.

We’re super happy Kendall ended his career on a high note. Congrats to MSUB on getting through a very trying season. It’s over. Have a great off-season. Work hard and come back stronger. UAA -congrats on the win, and we’ll see you in four days!

Simon Fraser 52 @ WOU 77

Prototypical game for WOU. Really pleased with this performance. They took SFU seriously the whole time and yet plenty of guys got good rotation minutes and they didn’t run their key guys too many minutes. Some numbers are still making us raise an eyebrow, but the fact is: WOU is Tanner Omlid and Jim Shaw, and everyone else is just the thatched roof, but they’re winning and doing so convincingly so it’s fine.

Clan highlights: Jordan Muir-Keung had eight points; Kedar Salam had six boards; Tyrell Lewin had five boards; and off the bench Bongani Moyo had six boards.

Wolf highlights: Malik Morgan had 14 points and seven assists; Janvier Alaby had five boards; Tanner Omlid had 12 points and six steals, Vince Boumann had 12 points and eight boards; and off the bench Darius Luborn had six boards and five points.

Congrats to Simon Fraser on a solid season and plenty of hope for the future!

WWU 92 @ CU-PDX 81

Interesting game by the Vikings. Concordia was in it for a while, but by seven or so minutes left in the first half WWU started to walk and that was that. Interesting minutes distributions for the Vikings, little curious about them, but we’ll see, probably nothing.

Viking highlights: Trey Drechsel played 40 full minutes and had 22 points and 11 boards; Logan Schilder had 10 points; Deandre Dickson had seven boards; Trevor Jasinsky had 14 points and eight boards; Daulton Hommes had 24 points and five boards while also playing 40 full minutes; and off the bench Siaan Rojas had 16 points.

Cav highlights: Jarrett Gray had five boards and five assists; Bryan Michaels went off and had 23 points; Chris Edward did in fact have a HUUUGE GAME with a whopping 31 points and 17 boards whoa; and off the bench Tyler Wells had 11 points, four boards, and four assists; while Cody Starr had seven points and five assists; and Hunter Sweet had five points. Good rebounding performance by the Cavs.

To the Cavs: TGIO; thank god it’s over, you got through it, you did it, you were in the best conference on the west coast and you kept grinding -lots of really close losses, which hopefully will switch to wins next year. Congrats to the Vikings on finishing the regular season strong.

CWU 68 @ SMU 75

Hooooly heck, the Wildcats gave the Saints all they could handle and conveniently they have another match-up on Thursday, which will inevitably be a grudge match. This game was insane, SMU only pulled away with maybe two minutes, and is it really a pull away when it comes down to foul shooting? We don’t think so.

Wildcat highlights: Jawan Stepney had 24 points; Jerome Bryant had 14 points and five boards among a full house of stats; and off the bench Cameron Williams had six points and seven boards.

Saint highlights: Luke Chavez went 8-8 from the line and had five boards and five assists; Matt Dahlen had 16 points, seven boards, and five assists along with a full house; Jordan Kitchen had eight boards; Rhett Baerlocher had 10 points; and EJ Boyce had 11 points. Off the bench Jared Matthews had eight points; and Tavian Henderson had five fouls.

Crazy game. Really well matched teams. Wildcats were missing Khalil Shabazz, but… Especially this season, everyone’s missing someone and so… Good teams find a way to win. Is what it is, we’ll see if the Wildcats find their way on Thursday.

NNU 67 @ SPU 56

Huge congrats to NNU, ending the season on a high note. We knew you could do it! Okay, we more of had a feeling SPU wouldn’t do it, but you guys seized the opportunity and got the ‘W’ and life is good. We’re just happy because our baby brother scored on Maurice Jones and Maurice Jones is a very good basketball player, so very exciting.

Nighthawk highlights: Sam Roth had a fantastic 11 boards; Jayden Bezzant was ON FIRE with 27 points; Spider shot super well and had 11 points; Maurice Jones had six boards; and off the bench Carlos Garcia had six points.

Falcon highlights: Hunter Eisenhower had five boards; and Gabe Colosimo had 20 points. Off the bench Nikhil Lizotte had seven points; Harry Cavell had six points; and Nathan Streufert had five boards among a full house.

Not a particularly surprising result. We’re curious to see the Falcons in the conference tournament because this game they seemed so turned off. Admittedly win or lose they would procure the same seed because of tiebreakers, but… Eh. Again: Really, really proud of NNU. Congrats to Maurice Jones on a good GNAC career, and congrats to NNU for trekking through a difficult conference season after a great non-con., Ended on the right note and we look forward to seeing more improvement next year.

To those that ended their season tonight: Congrats on final battles well-fought. To those headed up to Anchorage: We’ll see you soon, and look forward to watching some crazy intense GNAC basketball. It should be a really, really fun tournament -lots of ridiculously well-matched teams. We expect WOU to win the whole thing, but… Who knows?

Game previews’ll be up on Thursday morning. We’ll try and put up some stuff regarding what’s been going on with the other two conferences on Tuesday. We haven’t done as much of it this year because the GNAC did dominate non-con, and so as long as WOU kept winning, we felt and still feel confident that the Regional is headed to Monmouth -regardless as to what WOU does in the conference tournament.

Previewing Tonight’s Games!

IT’S THE LAST DAY OF REGULAR-SEASON CONFERENCE PLAY!!!!!!!!! To those of you crying because your seniors are graduating and you’re not going to the conference tournament: We feel that. We’ll cry with you. The only thing consoling us about losing Tanner Omlid is that there are many games left to play and then we’ll still get to follow his career overseas on top of it.

All times pacific.

UAA @ MSUB @ 6pm

Kendall Denham has one final game to not disappoint us. We’ll see if it happens. The reason we’re so disappointed in him is because he played super well as a sophomore but hasn’t been able to get back to it the last couple of years. We’d love to see him actually have a point scoring, assisting, and stealing legitimate game. But yeah, probably not gonna happen and so UAA will likely teamwork through it and that’ll be that, because we still don’t know that there’s a particular jaw dropping guy on that team; they just sort of kind of play okay enough together and Coach Oz takes care of the rest.

Prediction: Pick ’em.

SFU @ WOU @ 7pm

We’re soooo excited to see the minutes distribution on this one. We don’t think WOU is going to have too much a problem with it; it’s the final tune-up before the conference tournament and it’s kind of important because which ever team WOU ends up playing will have had a warm-up game in Anchorage on Thursday and so they’ll be a little bit warmer and more accustomed to the court. We’re slightly worried about the Wolves not taking this game seriously enough, but… Eh. Even if they don’t it should be fine.

Prediction: WOU wins.

WWU @ CU-PDX @ 7pm

WWU wants redemption for their blow-out against WOU and also to enter into the conference tournament on the right foot. That said, Concordia has now seen that they can win a conference game, so… Why not win this one too? We seriously doubt it’ll happen, but every fire begins with a single spark. Like Kendall Denham, Jarrett Gray and Chris Edwards were both completely legitimate. It would be nice to see them show that side of themselves in the last game of the year. If they do and the other guys can teamwork with them (notably Bryan Michaels and Cody Starr) it could be an interesting game, but it probably won’t be.

Prediction: WWU wins.

CWU @ SMU @ 7:30pm

The only match-up of the night between two conference tournament bound teams. We’re really excited for this because last time the teams met CWU led for a long time before SMU pulled it out. They’re pretty darn well matched and both have an on-again-off-again point guard in Khalil Shabazz (CWU) and Luke Chavez (SMU) and so it would be cool if they were both on. It won’t do anything to SMU’s three seed to be upset, but depending on what other teams do it could affect CWU. We think it’ll be a close game and it should be entertaining.

Prediction: Pick ’em.

NNU @ SPU @ 7:30

NNU is likely ticked off because of losing a close one to SMU (as they should be) and SPU should be riding high after a nice win over rival CWU. We worry slightly about SPU’s level of apathy -they don’t really have any seniors to be motivated for, they’re in the conference tournament, and “it’s only NNU.” That said… the Falcons lost to NNU earlier this year, so they should be plenty motivated.

Prediction: Pick ’em.

Should be a good night of games. Tweet at us!

Conference Game Day #19!

Goodness gracious, what an amazing night of basketball! Holy cow.

So it’s official: the teams in the conference tournament are:

1. Western Oregon
2. Western Washington
3. Saint Martin’s
4. Seattle Pacific -even if they lose and CWU wins on Saturday, the Falcons hold the tiebreaker.
5/6. Alaska-Anchorage/Central Washington

Tiebreakers… The projection is obviously that it’ll be UAA and then CWU because UAA is taking on MSUB while CWU is facing SMU, but if both obtain the same result, we believe CWU will get the tiebreaker because the teams split during the regular season and the Wildcats have a win over Western Washington.

Talking about the games…

UAF 69 @ MSUB 59

Fairly close and competitive through the first half, although there was a feeling that MSUB just wasn’t going to be able to get it done. UAF came out far too motivated to allow it and ultimately that was exactly how it played out. The way UAF was playing, you’d think they were still vying for a spot in the conference tournament, to the point that we actually checked the math again, so that was great.

Nook highlights: Jalon McCullough had nine points; Alex Baham had a full house; Davis Kimble had five boards; Joe Lendway had 15 points and eight boards; and Michael Kluting had 12 points and an amazing sixteen boards. Off the bench Amenofis Mitchell had eight points; and Daulton Lootens had five boards.

Jacket highlights: Kobe Tereshima had seven boards; Kendall Denham had 12 points; Zharon Richmond had 15 points; Kamal Tall had six boards; and off the bench Zack Rollins had eight boards.

Huge congrats to UAF on exceeding expectations, continuing to grind, and finishing the season strong. Very proud of you and have a great and productive off-season! We’ll see who returns next year before making any further predictions/statements.

SFU 58 @ CU-PDX 60

Oh goodness, what a game. Concordia came out super strong, but they’ve done that frequently and sure enough, SFU kept it close and continued to battle, and then eventually went up and we were like ‘okay, there it is’ because usually the Cavs let the other team back in at some point, keep it close, and then the other team still wins. Not last night. The Cavs got it done, congrats, shock the world, upset WWU on Saturday!

Clan highlights: Jordan Muir-Keung had five boards; Kedar Salam WENT OFF and had 37 points and seven boards; Tyrell Lewin had a whopping 13 boards; and off the bench Bongani Moyo had four boards.

Cav highlights: Jace Cates had five fouls; Jarrett gray had 21 points; Bryan Michaels had 10 points and five boards; and CHRIS EDWARD FINALLY PLAYED LIKE WE’VE BEEN EXPECTING ALL SEASON!!!!!!! He finished with 16 points and 15 boards. Off the bench Cody Starr had five assists; and Hunter Sweet had seven boards.

Congrats to the Cavs on their first conference win of the year. Clan -you guys still put up some monster numbers, but we beg of you not to shock the world on Saturday because we’ve already made reservations in regard to the Regional being in Monmouth.

WWU 73 @ WOU 89

It was never close. WOU just straight-up blew out the Vikings, no ifs ands nor buts. The good news for the Vikings is that they shot really well from the line and Blake Fernandez saw another five minutes, so… Count the rainbows where you can.

Viking highlights: Trey Drechsel scored 16 points including being 7-8 from the line; Deandre Dickson grabbed seven boards; Daulton Hommes had 21 points and eight boards; and off the bench Brett Kingma had five points; while Siaan Rojas had eight points.

Wolf highlights: Tanner Omlid had nine points, five boards, and four steals; Vince Boumann scored 13; Ali went 5-5 from the line; Riley Hawken had 12 points and seven boards; and off the bench Janvier Alaby had nine points and four boards; while JJ Chirnside had nine points and five boards.

Oddly enough your prototypical game from the Wolves, which doesn’t surprise us too much. The Viks had a “prototypical” game against the Wolves last time, so… They’re even. We think WWU has more talent but WOU is able to utilize their talent more. It is what it is. Congrats to both teams on getting through your last “big game” of the regular season -stay focused on Saturday.

NNU 64 @ SMU 71

This game was a nail biter until the last minute or two, holy goodness. Both teams played really hard, and it’s a game like this that reminds you just how much SMU is doing more with less. They match-up in playability really well with NNU and yet… The coaching is a cut above and sure enough, they got the ‘W’.

Nighthawk highlights: Obi Megwa had five boards; Spider had 12 points and nine boards; Maurice Jones had five boards, five fouls, and 15 points; and off the bench Marko Lepovic had seven points and seven boards.

Saint Highlights: MATT DAHLEN PLAYED LIKE A D1 TO D2 TRANSFER CENTER IS SUPPOSED TO PLAY!!!!! He had 25 points and 10 boards on 10-12 shooting, hallelujah! Jordan Kitchen had 10 points; Rhett Baerlocher had eight points and nine boards; and EJ Boyce had eight points. Off the bench Jared Matthews had a full house among six points and four boards; and Tavian Henderson had eight boards.

Congrats and big thanks to SMU for pulling out the victory and making all of our lives much less complicated. Great effort to the Nighthawks for terrifying us the entire time about SMU not pulling it out.

CWU 69 @ SPU 82

Anyone else would tell you this was not really an exciting game because SPU was up 10 to 12 almost the entire time, but… We freaked out through every minute. We know that CWU has a tendency to hit shots down the stretch (which they did) and SPU has a tendency to turn off the gas (which they did briefly before turning it back on) so… It is what it is.

Wildcat highlights: Malik Montoya had six boards and 11 points; Jawan Stepney had 26 points; Fuquan had seven boards and five fouls; and off the bench Naim Ladd had eight points.

Falcon highlights: Coleman Wooten had 11 points and 12 boards; and Nathan Streufert had 11 points and nine boards among a full house; Gavin Long had 14 points; and off the bench Hunter Eisenhower had 15 points.

What can we really say? Congrats to the three players awarded technicals: Fuquan Niles, Naim Ladd, and Gavin Long. And congrats to the Wildcats on losing their game but still officially making it into the conference tournament!

Really, really fun night of hoops. Tomorrow we’ll see; the games appear far more mismatched, but last game of the season means everyone’s fighting to end the season on a good note, so could be surprisingly climactic.

Have a great Friday, and to the I-5 corridor peeps: Please be safe. It’s supposed to snow again any time now.

Previewing Tonight’s Games

LAST WEEKEND OF REGULAR SEASON CONFERENCE PLAY!!!!!!!! How exciting is this? Very exciting. The summary of what we can expect out of tonight’s games in regard to conference tournament seeding implications is that it’s complicated and we’ll talk about it in the morning.

All times pacific.

UAF @ MSUB @ 6pm

Fun fact: It’s currently 20 degrees colder in Billings than it is in Fairbanks. UAF is officially out of the running for the conference tournament via their loss to UAA on Tuesday, and so now it’s just a matter of pride. We’ll be curious to see what happens because the teams should be really well matched; we think UAF is the better team, but Alterowitz being a difficult place to play should never be overlooked.

Prediction: Pick ’em.

SFU @ CU-PDX @ 7pm

While we don’t doubt the Cavs could upset the Vikings, it seems unlikely, and thus this is the game that likely stands between them and an 0-20 season. Simon Fraser just gave UAA all they could handle, although failed to play much defense, and so… We’re not sure what to think. Yes, we think SFU is better than CU-PDX, but by how much and are they truly better? Both teams have suffered from unending amounts of disappointment via two potentially all conference guys playing below average for the entire season -SFU with Michael Provenzano and JJ Pankratz, CU-PDX with Jarrett Gray and Christopher Edwards. We think the Cavs are on paper better than both MSUB & SFU, but… It hasn’t been that way in reality, so we’ll see.

Prediction: Pick ’em.

WWU @ WOU @ 7pm

WWU killed WOU when the teams met at Carver during the first week of the season, but that was a long time ago and Tanner Omlid only played 21 minutes while Malik Morgan didn’t play at all, so we’ll see what happens with this game. We’re curious about it, while at the same time we’re not as curious as we might otherwise be, because these teams are likely to meet at least once more, if not twice, and so… It’ll be what it’ll be. Judging by what the Wolves have done as of late, we think it’ll be hard for the Viks to get a blow-out, but everything else is totally possible, so we’ll see.

Prediction: Pick ’em.

NNU @ SMU @ 7:30pm

On paper, SMU should beat NNU without issue. In reality, SMU was killed by the Nighthawks in Nampa, and so… It could be dicey, which makes us twitchy. We also worry about the motivation of the Saints, because they have already clinched this bid to the conference tournament, it’s not senior night, and the game back in Nampa was a long time ago. Hopefully they’re motivated; if the Saints are motivated, it shouldn’t be too much of an issue, but NNU is going to be fighting for their lives, so… We’ll see.

Prediction: Pick ’em.

CWU @ SPU @ 7:30pm

Anything can happen in a rivalry game and this one is intense under normal circumstances. This time both teams are fighting to make it into the conference tournament, putting the intensity up to 11. The big thing for the Falcons to be aware of is that they can’t let off the gas down the stretch, even if they’re up by 20. CWU is so clutch in the last five minutes of game clock, regardless as to what the score is, and we don’t doubt they’ll be that clutch tonight, so… We’ll see what happens.

Prediction: Pick ’em.

Yup, every game is legitimately a pick ’em and thus it should be a really, really great night of hoops. We haven’t decided yet if we’re going to a game, but regardless we’ll be following along with all of them really closely and so tweet at us if you have thoughts and/or questions.

If you’re trekking within the I-5 corridor, remember: Cascadians have seizures at the sight of snow, so be sure to pack your patience, and remember that it will be nothing but black ice by the time the games end.

Be safe, have fun, go GNAC!

Conference Game Day #18

Alright, we’re back. We got really addicted to online crosswords. Wish that was a joke, but seriously we’ve done about 400 since Sunday morning.

UAF 60 @ WWU 70

UAF was never really in it, but at the same time we never felt like WWU was clicked in either. There was no doubt the Vikings were going to win, but… It was eh. Blake Fernandez is back in for the Viks, which is exciting, although ease-up/acclimate minutes, so we’ll see.

Nook highlights: Jalon McCullough had 14 points; Alex Baham had 14 points; Joe Lendway had five boards; and Michael Kluting had five boards. Off the bench Amenofis Mitchell had four boards and seven points; and Donny Wilder had five points.

Viking highlights: Trey Drechsel had eight boards; Logan Schilder had nine points; Deandre Dickson had 16 points and six boards; Trevor Jasinsky had 14 points and six boards on near perfect shooting; Daulton Hommes had 19 points including going 5-5 from the line; and off the bench Brad Wallace had five boards.

Solid game for the Nooks, if not the desired result. Congrats to the Vikings on continuing to get the job done.

UAA 66 @ SFU 64

Hoooooly guacamole. This win means Anchorage should be good for the conference tournament. They’ve got a favorable schedule between UAF and MSUB and so it should be fine. Initially this game looked like it was going to be a blowout; it took until after the first media timeout for the Clan to score, but they kept grinding and sure enough, it came down to it.

Seawolf highlights: Malik Clements went 5-7 from the line and had five boards; DJ Ursury had 10 points and eight boards; Drew Peterson had 13 points; Josiah Wood had nine points; and Brian Pearson had 18 points and seven boards.

Clan highlights: Othniel Spence had 19 points; Kedar Salam had 18 points; Tyrell Lewin had eight boards; and off the bench Jordan Muir-Keung had 13 points and five boards; while Bongani Moyo had five fouls.

The good news is Anchorage won. The questionable news is that these numbers are as good as we’ve seen UAA put up in quite some time and yet they barely squeaked by Simon Fraser. UAF vs. UAA is interesting because we feel like UAF has the better team but UAA has the better coaching, which makes them incredibly evenly matched.

SPU 74 @ MSUB 60

Color us shocked -we didn’t think the Falcons would lock in enough, but they did, although we’re still not happy with their rebounding, but whatever.

Falcon highlights: Coleman Wooten had 26 points and seven boards; Gabe Colosimo had 10!! assists and just one turnover; Nathan Streufert had 10 points; and Gavin Long had 13 points. Off the bench Nikhil Lizotte and Hunter Eisenhower both had six points; and Trey Miller had seven boards.

Jacket highlights: Kobe Tereshima had 15 points; Kendall Denham had seven boards; Hafeez Abdul had sven boards; Zharon Richmond had 14 points; Zack Rollins had five boards; and off the bench Kamal Tal had six boards; while Sven Jeuschede had six points.

Great job by the Jackets on their rebounding and good luck against the Alaska schools.

WOU 89 @ CWU 59

We feel mildly responsible for this result because we were in a shouty mood. Fun times. We don’t care how far you’re up -always play like you’re down by two, that’s our philosophy.

Wolf highlights: Malik Morgan had 13 points and six assists; Tanner Omlid had 14 points and 14 boards; Vince Boumann had five boards; Ali had 24 points!!; and Riley Hawken had six boards. Off the bench Demetrius Trammell had eight points; Darius Luborn had nine points; and JJ Chirnside had six boards.

Wildcat highlights: Khalil Shabazz had 20 points; Jawan Stepney had 11 points and five assists; Fuquan Niles had a whopping eight blocks and seven boards; and off the bench Sage Woodruff had eight points.

CWU thought this result was embarrassing. Oh no no no. It’s much more embarrassing to only beat an 0-16 team by three than it is to lose to the projected Regional host by 30. You’re fine Wildcats; the numbers largely check out.

CU-PDX 68 @ NNU 78

Concordia was in it and impressive and then by the end of the first half NNU went “wait, what the heck?” and put them back down. The Cavs still continued to fight though, it just wasn’t enough. Alright Cavs, you’ve got two more shots. Let’s see whatchu got.

Cav highlights: Jarrett Gray had five boards and went 6-8 from the line; Bryan Michaels had 12 points and five boards; Chris Edward had nine points and five fouls; and Taylor Harris had five boards. Off the bench Cody Starr had 11 points and five fouls; and Hunter Sweet had eight points and five fouls.

Nighthawk highlights: Obi Megwa had 20 points on good shooting; Maurice Jones had 15 points, eight boards, and a full house; and off the bench Jayden Bezzant had 17 points and six boards.

Solid performance from the Cavs, and not the best numbers from the Nighthawks -all the better to bounce back and get the upset win against SMU, eh? Sounds like a plan to us.

Fun night of basketball. Teams were a lot more locked in than we expected them to be. Very few close results outside of UAA/SFU game, which is sort of good? Teams are turning it on and dropping the hammer, and as we zoom toward March that’s exactly what we like to see.

Game previews’ll be up at 10am per usual.

Previewing Today’s Games

Helloooo from Seattle! Snow is inbound for the low land tomorrow night, so we’ll see how that goes, and… We’ll see how these games go too.

All times pacific.

UAF @ WWU @ 3pm

WWU shouldn’t have any issue with UAF, but UAF is fighting for a place in the conference tournament and also should be wanting some revenge for WWU winning up there, but… Probably not gonna happen.

Prediction: Viks take it.

SPU @ MSUB @ 4:15pm

MSUB’s only role now is that of the spoiler while SPU should be aware that they’re still fighting for a place in the conference tournament. Billings is a hard place to play and so if the Falcons don’t focus, they’re gonna go down and make it that much reliant on others for their spot in Anchorage.

Prediction: Pick ’em.

CU-PDX @ NNU @ 6pm

NNU is coming off of a super close loss to WOU, while CU-Portland is still looking for their first conference win after a close loss at CWU. Is this the game that it happens? Arguably it’s one of two left on the schedule that loom as big possibilities -next week the Cavs take on SFU on Thursday, which’ll be the other one.

Prediction: Pick ’em.

WOU @ CWU @ 7pm

CWU narrowly escaped over CU-PDX and WOU narrowly escaped over NNU. Both were unexpected narrow victories because both teams usually would have vastly outclassed their respective opponents, and shockingly this game could go a couple of directions. On the one hand, CWU loves getting up for big games, and this is a big game -WOU only has one loss, the Wildcats are fighting for a place in the conference tournament. On the other hand, WOU only has one loss and it would stun us if this was the night they picked up another, just because CWU is feisty WOU is going to want to bring the hammer down. We’ll see what happens. We could see either team winning a close one or WOU winning a blow-out, but we don’t think CWU will blow out the Wolves.

Prediction: Pick ’em.

UAA @ SFU @ 7:30pm

We’re super excited for this match-up. UAA is fighting for a place in the conference tournament, SFU is down to playing the spoiler, but both teams are decently matched-up. We’re super proud of the Clan for their dominating victory over the Nooks on Thursday and we think they’re ready to keep the ball rolling against the Seawolves, but the question is will they. The Seawolves as noted need this win to keep their conference hopes alive, and while they have one of the easier paths to the conference tournament, Alaska-Fairbanks has that same “easy” path so the fights are for real.

Prediction: Pick ’em.

Conference Game Day #17

Fun night of games, another team gets by Concordia unscathed, so let’s talk about it!

SPU 76 @ SMU 80

SPU led for quite a while and then SMU came back in, was up for a bit, and then very back and forth before the Saints put it away in over time. Great effort by both teams.

Falcon highlights: Coleman Wooten had 22 points and seven boards on good shooting; Harry Cavell had 11 points and five boards; Gabe Colosimo had five boards and six assists; Nathan Streufert had 15 points and 10 boards for the double-double; and Gavin Long had six boards. Off the bench Nikhil Lizotte had 15 points.

Saint highlights: Luke Chavez had 31 points, seven boards, and six assists; Matt Dahlen had 12 points, 10 boards, and five fouls; Jordan Kitchen had six boards; and Rhett Baerlocher had five boards and five fouls. Off the bench Jared Matthews had nine points and six boards; and Tavian Henderson had seven points.

Congrats to both teams on a hard battle well fought.

SMU 77 @ MSUB 60

This game was never a game, SMU just came in and said “we’re locking up our bid to the conference tournament now,” and went right ahead and did it. No outstanding play from any particular player, but good play from a bunch of players, which is exactly what we like to see late in the season. If you want to go fast go alone; if you want to go far, go as a group.

Saint highlights: Luke Chavez had five assists; Matt Dahlen had 10 points; Jordan Kitchen had 13 points and a full house; Rhett Baerlocher had 12 points and five boards; and EJ Boyce had 12 points and five assists on great shooting. Off the bench Jared Matthews had six points, four boards, and four assists; BJ Standley had seven points, four boards, and four assists; and Tavian Henderson had eight points.

Yellowjacket highlights: Kobe Terashima had five boards; Zharon Richmond had 24 points; Zack Rollins had 15 points and six boards; and off the bench Jordan Perry had seven points.

Really, really happy with SMU’s numbers, congrats on clinching a berth in the conference tournament, and keep on keeping on.

UAF 51 @ SFU 83

Admittedly this is the type of score we were expecting when SFU played MSUB. Go figure. Congrats to the Clan on a huge spoiler win, and good effort to the Nooks -you’re still in it, keep fighting.

Nook highlights: Tre Eisenhut had 10 points; Dalton Lootens had seven boards; and Michael Kluting had 17 points and seven boards. Off the bench both Amenofis Mitchell and Davis Kimble had seven points.

Clan highlights: Jordan Muir-Keung had a huge game with 19 points and five assists on great shooting; Kedar Salam had 31 points and a full house; Michael Provenzano had eight assists (WOW!!!); and Tyrell Lewin had seven boards. Off the bench Bowen Bakken had six boards; and Bongani Moyo had six points.

Nicely done Clan, and time to get back on the iceberg Nooks -there are more fish in the sea, y’all’ve got three games left; get after it.

CU-PDX 76 @ CWU 80

It’s odd to say, but it was a prototypical Concordia game where they were in it for a really, really long time before the other team was able to put it away in basically the final two minutes. It seems like more than half of their games have gone that way. You’re like “Oh, Concordia is going to finally their win!” Noooope. Congrats on the Wildcats for staying focused and getting the ‘W’.

Cav highlights: Jarrett Gray had 19 points and six boawrds; Chris Edward had 18 rebounds and went 8-8 from the line; and off the bench both Cody Starr and Hunter Sweet had four boards.

Wildcat highlights: Khalil Shabazz had nine points; Malik Montoya had fie boards and a full house; Jawan Stepney had 15 points and seven boards; and Fuquan Niles had a full house among 12 points, 10 boards, and a whopping seven blocks -soooo close to the trip dub. Off the bench Naim Ladd had four boards; and Sage Woodruff had 23 points and a four boards among a full house.

Really proud of the Wildcats for pulling this out. It was pointed out to us that you have the most brutal end of season schedule of anyone, so… Good luck with that. WOU + Spartin. Yikes.

WOU 70 @ NNU 67

Pretty typical Wolves game through the first half. They ended up up by 10 or so going into the half and we were like “okay, they should push away.” No, no, no, not according to the Nighthawks. As we recall it got really competitive around the 10 minute mark in the second half and it was a heart attack from there on out. Congrats to the Wolves for pulling it out and big kudos to the Nighthawks for terrifying them as such.

Wolf highlights: Malik Morgan had six boards; Tanner Omlid had 16 points, seven boards, five assists, and four blocks; and off the bench Janvier Alaby had five points; Dustin Triano had nine points; Brandell Evans had four boards; and JJ Chirnside had a great game with 17 points.

Nighthawk highlights: Obi Megwa had a nice bounce-back game with 16 points and six boards; Sam Roth had five boards and a full house; Spider had six boards; and off the bench Marko Lepovic had four boards.

Again: Congrats to both teams on fighting really hard, valiant effort by all of you. We don’t believe NNU is technically out of the hunt for a bid in the conference tournament, although they will need to win out from here and that includes not being upset by Concordia as well as beating Spartin, so… Difficult road, but not impossible.

UAA 56 @ WWU 66

Initially the Viks were playing down to the Seawolves, but by the second half it was fine and we felt confident that concerning things weren’t about to happen, so it was all good. Still -congrats to the Seawolves for going toe-to-toe with a good WWU team, from here on out you guys should have an advantage, so we’ll see.

Seawolf highlights: Malik Clements had 10 points; DJ Ursery had 11 points; Josiah Wood had nine points; Brian Pearson had nine points; and off the bench Curtis Ryan had nine points.

Viking highlights: Trey Drechsel had five boards; Logan Schilder had seven boards; Deandre Dickson had a great game with 17 points, seven boards, and a full house; Trevor Jasinsky had seven points; and Daulton Hommes played 40 full minutes and had 14 points and six boards. Off the bench Siaan Rojas had eight points, six boards, and five assists.

Congrats Vikings on taking care of business. Team first basketball., we like the numbers, although Trey continues his streaky shooting, which is a bit of a head scratcher but go figure.

Great night of games, congrats to all on playing hard. Game previews up tomorrow.

Conference Game Day #16

Wow! What a night of games and only four game nights left before the conference tournament.. We finally caught onto the fact that the Alaska schools essentially play the last two weeks of games on the road, which makes good sense because of the tournament being up there.

MSUB 77 @ SFU 75

On the one hand the game should have been a pick ’em, but on the other hand we are still surprised MSUB won because SFU has a fairly good home court advantage in regard to how echo-y it gets in the West Gym, so… Congrats to the Yellowjackets on a solid win.

Jacket highlights: Kobe Tereshima had six boards and five assists; Kendall Denham had six boards and five assists; Hafeez Abdul had an incredible 26 points and nine boards on fantastic shooting and while going 8-8 from the line -WOW!!; Zack Rollins also shot fantastically and finished with 27 points.

Clan highlights: Othniel Spence had five boards; Jordan Muir-Keung had six assists; Kedar Salam continues to impress, this time with 21 points and while going 7-8 from the line; Michael Provenzano had nine points and seven assists; and Tyrell Lewin shot 7-7 from the field and finished with 14 points. Off the bench Bowen Bakken had 11 points; and Bongani Moyo had six points and seven boards.

Really good numbers from the Clan, and a great win for MSUB; congrats to all.

SPU 80 @ CU-PDX 70

Interesting game. Concordia was in it until about the two minute mark and then… SPU put it away. The Cavs have had several games like that and if we feel frustrated, we can’t imagine how frustrated they feel.

Falcon highlights: Coleman Wooten had 24 points and 11 boards for the double-double; Gabe Colosimo had 10 points; and Nathan Streufert had 16 points and eight boards. Off the bench Braden Olsen had six assists; Nikhil Lizotte had seven points; and Trey Miller had five points.

Cav highlights: Bryan Michaels had 23 points; Chris Edward had five boards; and off the bench Jace Cates had nine points; Tyler Wells had six points and five fouls; and Daniel Theisen had six points and five boards.

We’re going to be honest: We’re getting really irritated with Concordia’s media staff. They’re not updating the live stats, and while we understand that technical difficulties happen, the fact that it seems to happen 2/3rds of the time says that something needs to change. The reality is that it hurts not only players in terms of exposure, but the non-local family members of players as well.

SMU 73 @ WOU 86

At times it was close, but never concerningly so. SPU gave WOU more of a battle than SMU did, which is sort of curious but sort of not. WOU did what WOU does, although SMU did have Luke Chavez back, which was really nice.

Saint highlights: Luke had 14 points; Matt Dahlen had 15 points and five fouls on perfect shooting from both the field and the line; and off the bench Caden Smith had six points; BJ Standley had 12 points; and Tavian Henderson had six points and six boards.

Wolf highlights: Malik Morgan has turned on hot as the regular season begins to wane and had 16 points and five assists; Tanner Omlid had 13 points, five boards, and a full house; ALI IS OFFICIALLY BACK!!!!! and had 24 points and four steals, he was one of our faves last year so we’re REALLY excited; and Riley Hawken continues the existential crisis with five boards. Off the bench Demetrius had eight points; Janvier Alaby had four boards; Darius Luborn had 10 points on great shooting; and JJ Chirnside had seven points and five boards.

Really pleased with the numbers put up by WOU, and honestly confused by the lack of numbers put up by SMU, so… We’ll see what they do on Tuesday. Probably’ll be pretty feisty, which’ll be fun.

NNU 53 @ UAF 67

The Nooks continue to make the push for the conference tournament. We’re honestly a little surprised by this result -we have no idea what’s up with the Nighthawks right now, although are happy to see that Maurice Jones is bouncing back. Still, great game from the Nooks, so cool? No pun intended.

Nighthawk highlights: Obi Megwa had six boards; and Maurice Jones had 19 points and 15 boards.

Nook highlights: Jalon McCullough started; Alex Baham had 12 points; Michael Kluting had 11 points and eight boards; and off the bench Amenofis had 14 points and five boards; Donny Wilder had eight points; and Davis Kimble had nine points.

Interesting. A ‘W’ is a ‘W’ but it appears that both teams played “down” to each other, when both are actually semi-decent in reality. Ooookay then.

CWU 54 @ UAA 70

Revenge is a dish best served hot and sweaty. Last time UAA lost a heartbreaker in OT to the Wildcats, and now they’ve gotten their revenge -convincingly. UAA was up largely the whole time and then never let CWU truly back into it.

Wildcat highlights: Khalil Shabazz had five boards; Fuquan Niles had 10 points, nine boards, and four blocks; and off the bench Cameron Williams had 13 points nad eight boards; and Karsten Chaplik had five boards.

Seawolf highlights: Malik Clements went 8-10 from the line and had 12 boards; Drew Peterson had six assists; and Josiah Wood had 19 points. Off the bench Kylan Osborne had nine points; and Curtis Ryan had six points.

Lesson for everyone else: DO NOT FOUL MALIK CLEMENTS. He went 2-11 from the field, let the dude shoot.

Fun night of basketball. Last four games of the year on tap, Really exciting stuff and should be a good week.

Be safe, have fun, go GNAC.