PUEBLO, Colo. – The Colorado State University Pueblo men's basketball played perhaps its most complete game of the young 2023-24 season here Saturday afternoon as the ThunderWolves rolled past Alaska-Fairbanks in the finale of the 39th Annual Al Kaly Shrine Classic at Massari Arena.
With the victory, the Pack improves to 2-2 overall on the season, while Alaska falls to 1-3 on the year. The Pack opened the Al Kaly Classic with a 73-58 win on Friday over the Nanooks.
In Saturday's game, the Pack shot a season high 48 percent from the field and made 10 treys on offense, while allowing a season low 44 points and holding the Nanooks to just 28 percent shooting from the field and a 2-for-19 (10.5 percent) effort from the 3-point line.
Leading the way offensively for the Pack was junior guard
Daeyon James (Stockbridge, Ga./Seward County CC), who scored a season-high 21 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field, including a 4-for-7 effort from the 3-point line. James also added a team-high tying six rebounds.
In addition to James, junior guard
Armon Muldrew (Perris, Calif./San Bernardino Valley) added 12 points, while junior forward
De'Shaun Cooper (Poway, Calif./Balboa School) tallied 11 points. Freshman forward
Corbin Garver (Colorado Springs, Colo./Air Academy) recorded eight points, three rebounds and two steals off the bench.
The first half as a low scoring affair as the teams combined to score a total of 43 points as the Pack held a 22-21 lead after the opening 20 minutes of action.
In the opening half, the two teams combined to make 18 of their 53 shots and just four of its 24 3-pointers. In addition, the two teams also combined for 19 turnovers as the Pack had 10 and Alaska had nine turnovers.
Unlike the first half, the Pack offense came to life in the final 20 minutes of play as they outscored the Nanooks, 48-23 and shot 60 percent from the field and were 8-for-11 (72.7) from the 3-point line.
The Pack opened the second half a 29-4 run over the opening nine-plus minutes to turn a one-point lead into a 26-point cushion at 51-25. The run was keyed by six made trey by the Pack, including capping the run with back-to-back treys from senior guard
Makiah Morris (San Diego, Calif./San Diego City College) and James.
After Fairbanks stopped the run with a lay-up by Nick Hopkins with 10:14 left in the game, the Pack would score seven of the next nine points to extend its lead to 29 points at 58-29 with 7:19 left in the game. The 29 point lead is the largest lead of the season for the Pack.
The Pack would keep its lead over 20 points the remainder of the game to seal its victory.
Alaska was led offensively by 14 points from Paul Johnson and 13 points, seven rebounds and three blocks from Abdullahi Mohamed.
The Pack were outrebounded, 39-35 as Morris and James each had six rebounds, while the Pack also had 14 assists and nine steals. Alaska had nine assists and seven steals.
Both teams struggled from the free throw line as the Pack was 12-for-21 (57.1 percent) at the line, while Alaska was 12-for-20 (60 percent) at the line. The game featured a total of 36 fouls, including five technical, including two double technical in the contest.
The Pack will look to make its three straight wins as they return to the court on Friday, Nov. 24 as they host Multnomah in a 7:30 p.m. game at Massari Arena and then will host Oklahoma Panhandle State in a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, Nov. 26.
