Daishen NIx
Daishen Nix’s fingerprints were all over the Houston Rockets’ first two-game winning streak in nearly two months. Filling in for former No. 2 pick Jalen Green, the 20-year-old point guard from Anchorage started back-to-back games and helped the youthful Rockets beat Detroit and Oklahoma City to give Houston consecutive victories for the first time since the second week in December. In a 117-114 win over Detroit, Nix logged 27 minutes and scored six of his nine points in the fourth quarter, including a 3-pointer that tied the game at 103 with 4:47 left to play. Three days later, Houston beat OKC 112-106 as Nix contributed eight points, three assists to go with a career-high seven rebounds and two blocked shots. His bucket at the 1:02 mark of the fourth quarter pushed the lead to 107-100. Nix, a former McDonald’s All-American who turned pro straight out of high school, is averaging a career-best 3.6 points, 1.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 15.1 minutes in 38 games.
Alissa Pili
Anchorage’s Alissa Pili this week was named one of 10 finalists for the Katrina McClain Award, which recognizes the top power forward in women’s NCAA Division I basketball. The former 3-time Gatorade Alaska Player of the Year and 2020 Pac-12 Conference Freshman of the Year has been the centerpiece of an 18-2 Utes team that is ranked No. 7 in the AP poll, the school’s highest ranking in its history. The 6-foot junior out of Dimond High leads the Pac-12 in scoring (20.3) and FG% (.619). Pili has a streak of scoring 20 or more points in five consecutive games (the longest such stretch for a Utah player in 13 years) and is coming off a 23-point effort that was capped by a buzzer-beating layup to secure a 71-69 win over No. 8 UCLA. This was the second time this season that she scored the winning points inside the final second of a game; last month she hit the go-ahead free throw with 0.3 left in an 80-79 win over Arizona. Pili looks to become the second Alaskan to win the McClain Award, following in the footsteps of Fairbanks’ Ruthy Hebard, who won it in 2018 and 2020 for the Oregon Ducks.
Isaiah Moses
Isaiah Moses of Anchorage is a major reason why the College of Southern Idaho is the No. 1-ranked NJCAA men’s team in the country. The freshman point guard has been nothing short of sensational with averages of 15.0 points and 4.8 assists in 25 games. He owns a 2-to-1 assist-turnover ratio and is shooting .919 percent from the free-throw line on a 91-of-99 clip. Last night the 6-foot-1 playmaker out of Dimond High pumped in a career-high 34 points on 10-of-16 shooting to go with seven assists in an 83-79 victory over Snow to move the Golden Eagles to 25-0 on the season. Moses, a former Gatorade Alaska Player of the Year, poured in 21 of his team’s 54 points in the second half as CSI rallied from a four-point halftime deficit.
Traivar Jackson
Anchorage’s Traivar Jackson had his highest scoring performance in a month after bagging 28 points on 11-of-19 in a 90-80 loss to Scottsdale. He also knocked down his seventh career 3-pointer. This was also the seventh time in 51 career games that the sophomore forward had that many points in a single game. His career-high is 36 set last season when he was a NJCAA Second Team All-American. The 6-foot-7 forward is averaging 18.6 points and 7.7 rebounds for his career and owns a .608 FG%. The former West High star needs 51 more points to reach the 1,000-point benchmark, making him just the second Alaska men’s player to reach the 1K plateau at the junior college level. The first was Anchorage’s Doron Perkins, who scored 1,191 points in the NWAC at Southwestern Oregon from 2003 to 2005.