by Alex Dean
ROCKLIN, Calif. – The Alaska Nanooks women’s basketball team started its season with a win this afternoon in California, defeating Cal Poly Humboldt 83-75 in its first game of the Bill Holtz Warrior Classic at Jessup University. The Nanooks held off a strong Lumberjack’s third quarter, which saw them erase a 14-point Alaska lead, and held Cal Poly Humboldt to 14 points in the final quarter while scoring 20.
Kayla Johnson led the team with 21 points, while Destiny Reimers posted a double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
The Nanooks started the game by falling behind 10-4 early in the first quarter but responded by scoring the following 11 points. Jayda Van Dyke and Reimers knocked down threes, while Tristian Martin converted the and-one to give the Nanooks a 15-10 lead. Martin closed out the first by draining her first three of the contest, putting Alaska ahead 19-12.
Taylor Pilot got the Nanooks on the board in the second with a fastbreak layup after swiping a steal. However, the Lumberjacks answered with a 7-0 run to tie the game at 21 with 7:01 left in the quarter. Miranda Lomax put Alaska back on top with a layup, and after a missed Lumberjack three, Johnson gave the Blue and Gold a four-point lead with a jumper. A Humboldt jump shot made it 25-23, but a 9-0 run for Alaska put them up 34-23. Reimers, Pilot and Johnson logged layups during the run, while Emily Freeman drilled a shot from distance. From there, Johnson took over, scoring six points in the final three minutes of the second to help the Nanooks establish a 43-29 advantage heading into the break. Alaska’s 24 points in the quarter were its most of the contest, as they shot 10-of-18 from the floor and 2-of-4 from beyond the arc.
Reimers and Pilot both converted three-point plays to start the third, helping Alaska on a 6-3 run over the opening two minutes to put it up 49-32. However, a 12-0 run by the Lumberjacks shrank the Nanook’s lead to five. At the 2:56 mark, a Cal Poly Humboldt layup tied the game at 55, and the Lumberjacks would take the lead 46 seconds later on a three-pointer. With the Nanooks down 60-58 with just over a minute remaining in the third, Johnson helped Alaska reestablish the lead, scoring its final six points of the quarter to put it up 63-61 heading into the final 10 minutes of action.
Alaska remained in front to start the fourth, but could not build a lead greater than four over the first half of the quarter. The Nanooks held the one-point advantage at 69-68 before a Pilot layup put Alaska up three with 3:58 left to play. This would kick off a 10-0 run for the Nanooks, with Pilot contributing four points and Amelia Brady completing a three-point play to help build an 11-point lead. Alaska would cruise to victory, with Reimers knocking down four free throws on four attempts to close out the contest.
