Feb. 22, 2008

Alaska vs. Montana State Billings Complete Game Notes

• While Montana State may be newcomers to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, the Yellowjackets are hardly strangers to the Nanooks. The two teams first met all the way back in the 1972-73 season, as the then-named Eastern Montana bested Alaska by a 98-91 scoreline. The visitors also hold the edge in the lifetime series with the Nanooks, 31-16.

• The Blue and Gold will be looking to avenge a tough loss to the Yellowjackets in the teams' Jan. 24 meeting earlier this season. Trailing by as many as 12 in the second half, Alaska fought back to level the scores at 55-55 before a late surge from Montana State pushed them to a 65-55 win.

• At least one Alaska player, Colin Matteson, will be eager to line up against the Yellowjackets again. Matteson posted his first career double-double against Montana State Billings last time out, pouring in a game-high 20 points and grabbing 12 rebounds against the Yellowjackets: the first time the junior had pulled in more than 10 rebounds for the Nanooks. Matteson also matched a career-high with four assists in that same contest.

• While Alaska would ultimately fall to Seattle, 62-58, at the Patty Center on Thursday, the Blue and Gold would make the Redhawks sweat until the final buzzer by hitting four three-pointers in the final minute of play, trimming a 12-point deficit down to just three in the matter of 51 seconds.

• The Nanooks had five different players reach double-figures in scoring for the first time this season against Western Washington on Feb. 16, paced by 17 points from Kevin Atkins. Keven Campbell and Mladen Begojevic finished with 12 apiece, while Colin Matteson and Nayshorn Maynard both had 10. The last time the Nanooks had five players break the 10-point barrier in the same game? Strangely enough, it was on Feb. 15, 2007 (almost a year to the day) and also against Western Washington.

• Freshman Travis Pew pulled in a career-high eight rebounds in the Nanooks clash with Seattle on Thursday night: five of which came at the offensive end. Pew would also hit two three-pointers and record a vital steal to help key Alaska's comeback down the stretch.

• Junior forward Colin Matteson is the team's leading scorer since the Nanooks began GNAC conference play on Jan. 3. Matteson has scored in double-figures in 11 of the team's 13 league games, averaging 13.5 points over that span.

• With his 14 points against Seattle on Thursday, senior Mike Titus scored his 700th point for the Blue and Gold. Titus now sits in sole possession of 40th place on the school's all-time scoring list with 712. He trails former Nanook Matt Thompson by just 12 points for 39th place; Thompson scored 724 points for Alaska between 1992-93.