UAF offense stunted in season-ending defeat at GNAC Tournament
LACEY, Washington (KTUU) - The University of Alaska Fairbanks men’s basketball team’s five-game winning streak screeched to a halt on Thursday at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference postseason tournament at St. Martin’s University.
UAF lost to Seattle Pacific 81-47 in the GNAC quarterfinals.
Despite being the lower seed, UAF had reasons to believe they would be victorious on Thursday. Two weeks prior, UAF had downed Seattle Pacific 71-60 to earn a season split against the Falcons. The Nanooks then won their next three games to nab the sixth and final spot in the postseason tournament.
The Nanooks' season-ending drubbing stood in stark contrast to the Blue and Gold’s four-overtime victory a week earlier on the same hardwood.
Last Thursday, UAF defeated St. Martin’s, 123-115, tying the 1998-99 Nanooks' win over Pillsbury Baptist for the fourth-most points scored in a game in program history.
Seattle Pacific took control of things early on Thursday. The Falcons led 35-21 at halftime and then 54-25 in the first seven minutes of the second half.
UAF’s season was highlighted in part by an improbable come-from-behind 76-74 win over UAA in January.
In that game, the Nanooks trailed by 19 points midway through the second half before their offense caught fire.
The loss marked the end of the road for several key UAF players, including Paul Johnson and Griffin Effenberger, the former of which joined teammates Isaiah Saams-Hoy (second-team) and Chris Lee (honorable mention) on the GNAC all-conference team.
“I’m very happy for Paul. As a senior, and three-year player in our program, Paul has been through a lot,” UAF coach Frank Ostanik said in a release. “I think he has demonstrated himself to be one of, if not the best, shooters in our league. However, Paul is more than a shooter, he takes care of the ball, defends and is by all accounts, a great leader. Paul is simply a very good basketball player.”
Ostanik will look to committed players like Finn Gregg of Nome and Marcus Stockhausen of Ketchikan to help replace the offense of Johnson and Effenberger.
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