The Alaska Nanooks women’s basketball team will play their only game of the week against the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves on Saturday, February 7 at 1 p.m. in Fairbanks. The matchup will take place at the Alaska Airlines Gymnasium.
Saturday’s event is designated as both a “White Out” and “Women and Girls in Sports Appreciation” game. Women and girls who wear their team’s gear and share their team name at the ticket office will receive free admission. All attendees are also eligible for an Alaska Airlines round trip ticket giveaway, with the winner announced during the fourth quarter.
The Nanooks return home after two losses on the road last week. They were defeated by Northwest Nazarene 84-45 on January 29, followed by a 92-40 loss to No. 9 Central Washington on January 31. In those games, Tamai Mancuso led scoring for Alaska with 25 points against Northwest Nazarene and 14 points against Central Washington.
This season, Mancuso leads the Nanooks with an average of 13.3 points per game, ranking ninth in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC). Jazlynn Novelli is also averaging double digits with 10.2 points per game through nine games. Both Mancuso and Pearle Green are among the GNAC’s top ten for three-pointers made per game, while Green has posted a team-leading three-point shooting percentage of 33.3% among players with at least five attempts.
Genevieve Velasquez leads Alaska in rebounds, averaging 4.5 per game and recording a team-high of 22 steals this season. Emily Freeman has provided a team-best 39 assists so far, while Amelia Brady leads in blocks with eleven. The Nanooks’ bench contributes an average of nearly twenty-three points per game, which is second highest in the GNAC and places them within the top seventy nationally among Division II teams.
Alaska Anchorage enters Saturday’s contest with a record of twelve wins and eight losses overall (4-7 GNAC). Last week they split two games: upsetting No. 9 Central Washington before falling to Northwest Nazarene.
The Seawolves feature two of the conference’s top scorers: Mahaila Harrison averages 18.7 points per game (second in GNAC) and Elaina Mack averages 15.8 (fifth). Harrison’s scoring average ranks her twenty-eighth nationally among Division II players; she also holds a field goal percentage of forty-five point four percent (fourth in GNAC). Mack makes nearly three three-pointers per game—second best in conference—and ranks fourteenth nationally for that statistic.
Alaska Anchorage leads all GNAC teams in scoring offense at nearly seventy-eight points per game—ranking thirteenth nationwide—and makes over eight three-pointers each contest.
Current conference standings show Central Washington leading at nineteen wins and three losses overall (10-2 GNAC), while Alaska remains winless this season (0-19 overall; 0-11 GNAC).
Following Saturday’s rivalry matchup, Alaska will host Simon Fraser on Thursday, February 12, then Western Washington on Saturday, February 14.
