BILLINGS, Mont. – Winners of eight of their last 10 games including three in a row, the Montana State University Billings men's basketball team is preparing for their second-to-last road trip of the season that will have the Yellowjackets traveling up to Alaska for a pair of Great Northwest Athletic Conference road games on Thursday and Saturday following completing the sweep of a three-game home-stand.
 
For the second week in a row, the Yellowjacket men knocked off the second-place team in the conference on Thursday as they bested the Wolves of Western Oregon University 79-57. MSUB followed that win up on Saturday by defeating a feisty Saint Martin's University squad 82-74 to earn their first season-sweep of the year.
 
First year head coach Jamie Stevens' crew enters this weekend's pair of road games with an overall record of 12-7 that includes a mark of 7-4 in the league.
 
On Thursday, the 'Jackets will take on the last team in the league, the University of Alaska Fairbanks which holds a mark of 4-17 overall and 1-10 in the GNAC. Following that game, the men will travel to Anchorage to take on their third ranked opponent of the season, the 23^rd-ranked University of Alaska Anchorage Nanooks on Saturday. Both games are scheduled to tip off at 7 p.m. local time.
 
The last time MSUB faced the two Alaska programs, they split the pair of home games as they dropped their first game of the New Year 80-72 to Anchorage on Jan. 5 and then defeated Fairbanks 95-70 two days later on Jan. 7.
 
The Yellowjacket men own a 37-18 all-time record over Alaska Fairbanks that includes claiming four of their last five meetings. MSUB also holds an all-time record of 26-35 against Alaska Anchorage.
 
Entering this week's pair of road-contests, MSUB is ranked in the top-25 in the nation in four separate categories including boasting the 10^th-most three-point field goals made per game at 9.6. The Yellowjackets also boast the 14^th-best scoring offense as they average 82.8 points per outing, the 19^th-best three-point field goal percentage (.753) and the 21^st-most assists per game (16.7).
 
The Yellowjacket men are led in scoring by GNAC Player of the Week senior guard Antoine Proctor with a conference second-best 18.9 points per game. The Washington, D.C. native is currently fourth on the team with a .421 (117-278) shooting percentage and his 45 total steals this season have him 23^rd in the nation with 2.4 steals per game. Despite not being the biggest player on the team, but Proctor is also second on the team with five rebounds per game.
 
Behind Proctor Jaxon Myaer, Robert Mayes and Taylor Stevens are all still averaging double-digit points and playing well together as the team has really meshed over the last few games. Myaer averages 14.2 points per game while Mayes and Stevens each average just over 11.
 
Myaer finds is one of the most prolific three-point shooters in the league, his 54 total treys has him averaging a conference second-best 2.8 three-pointers per outing while Mayes is currently 10^th in the league in rebounding as he brings down 6.9 rebounds per contest.
 
The University of Alaska Fairbanks is led by a trio of players averaging double-digit points per game in Stefan Tica (14.5), Domnique Brinson (11.9) and Sergej Pucar (11.6). Tica leads the team from three-point range with a .363 three-point average while Nico Matthews leads the team with a .542 field goal percentage from the field.
 
Matthews is currently 11^th in the nation and leads the conference in steals per game with 2.7 as he has started 17 of the 19 games he has seen action in this season. He also leads the team with 5.8 rebounds per game while Pucar is second on the squad with 5.4 boards.
 
The last time the Nanooks played the Yellowjackets, Brinson led the way in scoring with 23 points while Matthews brought down a team-high eight boards.
 
As a team, the University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves are currently hitting on 49.3% of their shots from the field, led by the 14^th-best shooter in the nation in Taylor Rohde who boasts a 61.2% shooting percentage from the field. Rohde averages a conference-best 19.9 points per game as he has scored 379 total points so far this season. The big-man also leads the team with 8.1 rebounds per game which leaves him currently second in the league.
 
Behind Rohde, Travis Thompson and Kyle Fossman average 11.2 and 10.7 points per game respectively. Thompson has proven able to knock down the trey as he boasts a league second-best 48.4% three-point field goal percentage, but at the same time, he distributes the ball well as he averages a conference second-best 4.9 assists per game.