Nanooks Get Back On Track With 67-63 Win Over Wildcats :: Alaska claims first conference road victory over Central Washington

Jan. 31, 2008

ELLENSBURG, WA- After two tough losses to Saint Martin's and Alaska Anchorage, the Nanook women got a morale-boosting win with an impressive 67-63 showing against Central Washington in Ellensburg. The win bumps Alaska up to 9-7 on the year, and 2-6 in GNAC play.

Cristina Bruketta and Kari Reabold finished with 12 points apiece for the Nanooks, but the story of the night was the balanced attack and group unity that led the team to success.

"It was a total team effort," head coach Lynne Andrew said afterwords. "Sheena [Brown] missed a few buckets and Kari missed a couple of free throws down the stretch, so their numbers could have been higher, but all but two of our players scored tonight. We won as a team and it feels great."

After seeing her team get off to a slow start against the Seawolves, Andrew decided to shake things up a bit, inserting three freshman (Anna Simmons, Nicole Bozek and Amonda Francis) into the starting lineup. The bold move paid off, as regular starters Reabold, Joscelyn Shumate and Bruketta responded well down the stretch when the Nanooks needed them most.

Trailing most of the way, Alaska took their first lead through a Shumate layup with just over 10 minutes left to play. The Blue and Gold wouldn't look back, as a three-point play from Sheena Brown and free throws from Reabold pushed the Nanooks to an eight-point advantage.

Though a couple of late jumpers from the Wildcats would slice the Nanooks lead to just three, Shumate grabbed a vital offensive rebound from a missed Reabold foul shot with just 22 seconds remaining, allowing Alaska to run the clock out on an important victory.

"As the game progress, I thought the players I had been starting really rose to the top," said Andrew. "That's just their experience showing: everyone really stepped up and gave us a huge boost."

Alaska hopes to maintain their winning ways on Saturday, when they head to Western Washington for an afternoon meeting with the Vikings. Tip-off in that contest will take place at 3:00 p.m. To follow the action from Bellingham, visit http://www.gnacsports.com/livestats.htm.