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FAIRBANKS — The undermanned Alaska Nanooks suffered a hard-fought 72-68 loss to the Western Oregon Wolves in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference women’s basketball opener for both teams on Wednesday night in Monmouth, Ore.

The Nanooks had early leads in the first 10 minutes of the game, fell behind by as many as 10 points early in the second half, stormed back to take the lead midway through the second half only to see Western Oregon pull out the win behind a 19-point performance from Danielle Albus.

“We battled and did some good things tonight, we just couldn’t pull out the win,” Nanooks coach Darryl Smith said in a telephone interview after the game.

“We played hard and well enough to win, but we knew we weren’t going to get any breaks on the road and we didn’t,” Smith said. “We took a step forward tonight and we’re getting better.”

The Nanooks did just about everything Smith hoped they would as they shot 45 percent from the floor, 40 percent from 3-point range and limited their turnovers to just 16. Western Oregon shot 40 percent from the floor, 25 percent from 3-point range and committed 18 turnovers.

The critical difference, Smith said, was scoring off those turnovers. Western Oregon converted the Alaska mistakes into 23 points, while the Nanooks only scored 11 off the Wolves’ miscues.

“We had some critical turnovers late in the game, but we still had chances to win up until the last 20 seconds,” Smith said. “We know we’re going to have to play our butts off in order to get wins.”

Another critical statistic was free throw shooting. Western Oregon went 24-for-28 from the foul line, while the Nanooks were just 8-for-12.

“They just pushed us the entire night and we weren’t in position on defense some of the time,” Smith said.

Ronisha Edwards led the Nanooks with a 17-point performance that included nine rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots. She fouled out late in the second half.

“Ronisha played a real solid game for us,” Smith said.

Sheena Brown added 16 points. Nicole Bozek contributed 12 points, three rebounds and four blocked shots. She also suffered a sprained ankle.

“She was hobbled a little bit, but hopefully she’ll be able to play on Saturday,” Smith said.

Megan Thigpen had a perfect first half, going 5-for-5 from the floor and nailing a 3-pointer. She too was in foul trouble and wound fouling out of the game.

In addition to the 19 points from Albus, The Wolves got 12 apiece from Katie Torland and AJ Hawk, and 10 from Shayla Corder. Torland had a game-high 10 rebounds, while Albus contributed three steals and four rebounds to the winning effort.

The loss leaves the Nanooks with an 0-1 conference mark and a 5-5 overall record heading into Saturday’s contest at Saint Martin’s.

The Wolves are 1-0 in GNAC play and 6-6 on the season. Western Oregon hosts No. 2 Alaska Anchorage on Saturday. The Seawolves posted a 61-46 win over Saint Martin’s on Thursday night.

Contact the News-Miner sports department at 459-7581.