It was three-pointers all around for the University of Alaska Fairbanks in its 93-55 victory over Multnomah University Saturday afternoon at the Alaska Airlines Gymnasium.
Paced by Taylor Tiulana coming off the bench to hit six of nine shots from behind the arc, the Nanooks finished with a three-point shooting percentage of 46.7 percent on 14 of 15 tries.
With her team up 46-24 at the half, UAF coach Amy Donovan was able to use wholesale substitutions while getting Emma McKenney, who missed most of last week’s two games with bruised knees, back into her comfort zone. As she did in Friday night’s meeting between the two teams, the 5-foot-6 junior transfer led all scorers with 22 points in 20 minutes on the court. That included going 4 of 6 on 3-pointers.
Tiulana finished with 19 points, 15 of which came in the opening quarter as the Nanooks opened up a 23-13 lead.
UAF widened its lead in the 2 nd quarter following another string of 3-pointers including another 2 for McKenney. and one each in the quarter from Caitlin Pusich, Sam Tolliver, and Jayda Van Dyke.
Tolliver provided a spark for the team in the fourth quarter, though, scoring five of her 12 points in the final period including a jumper on a nifty assist by Ellen Silva to stretch the lead back to 23.
The Nanooks (3-6 overall, 0-2 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play) will resume conference play after their brief Christmas break with games at Simon Fraser (Dec. 29) and Western Washington (New Year’s Eve).
