Box Score

FAIRBANKS, Alaska – Seniors Jaxon Myaer and Antoine Proctor each recorded at least 20 points as the Montana State University Billings men's basketball team handed the University of Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks their ninth loss in a row with a 75-64 road-win Thursday night in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action.
 
With their fourth win in a row, and sixth win in their last seven games, the Yellowjackets improve to 13-7 overall and 8-4 in conference play. With their 11^th loss in their last 12 games, the Nanooks fall to 4-18 with a 1-11 mark in the league.
 
“It's never easy to win in Fairbanks,” head coach Jamie Stevens said. “I am proud of the way our guys fought to get this win tonight. Coach Durham and Fairbanks did a great job of controlling the tempo for most of the night. We were not able to play the pace we like to play because of that. Fortunately, we got hot in the second half which helped us extend the lead and go on to win.”
 
The Yellowjacket men hit on 50% (26-52) of their shots from the field as a team, including hitting almost 60% (14-24) of their shots in the second half, while holding the Nanooks to a 38.9% (21-54) shooting performance.
 
MSUB received 24 total points from their bench, out-scoring Fairbanks 24-5 in the category.
 
Myaer finished the victory with 22 points, the fourth time this season the senior from Salt Lake City, Utah has acquired 22 or more points this season. He was 4-9 from three-point range while Proctor finished with 21 points that included going 4-6 from beyond the arc.
 
Proctor was also 5-7 from the free throw line and added five rebounds.
 
Taylor Stevens was the final player on the Yellowjackets' roster to finish with double-digit points as he knocked down three treys en route to scoring 14 total points. Robby Trabing finished the game with a team-high seven rebounds, all coming off the defensive glass.
 
For Fairbanks, Sergej Pucar paced the team with 21 points while Nico Matthews ended the contest with 14. Carthal McDonald was the final player in double-figures as he scored 11 points. Both Matthews and McDonald ended the game having made four of their nine looks from the field with McDonald hitting a team-high three treys.
 
Fairbanks garnered the largest lead of the opening stanza of play when they went up by five points (11-6) with 15 minutes remaining off a Pucar trey.
 
The lead changed hands seven times in the first half before MSUB entered the intermission with a one-point (29-28) lead.
 
The two would swap the lead back and forth early in the second half, but Robert Mayes sank a jumper just two minutes into the second stanza that would essentially give the Yellowjackets the lead for the final time.
 
Over the final 18 minutes, MSUB would flirt with a double-digit lead, eventually settling for the 11-point (75-64) road-victory.
 
MSUB will continue their second-to-last road test of the season on Saturday, traveling to Anchorage to take on the 25^th-ranked University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves. The last time the two programs met, Anchorage left Billings with an 80-72 win. Tipoff on Saturday is scheduled for 7 p.m.