Palmer sweeps 1st day NLC tourney to set semifinal games
Published 12:30 pm Thursday, March 7, 2019
The Palmer Moose swept the first day of action Thursday at the 2019 Northern Lights Conference tournament at Soldotna High School to set up Friday’s semifinal matchups.
The fifth-seeded Palmer girls defeated fourth-seeded Kodiak 67-39 to advance to a semifinal matchup with the top-seeded Soldotna Stars tonight at 7:45 p.m. The winner of that game advances to Saturday’s girls championship final at 6 p.m. and clinches a spot at the Class 4A state tournament. SoHi beat Palmer twice this season with scores of 65-26 and 61-25.
On the boys side, No. 5 Palmer bested No. 4 Kodiak 47-43 to advance to Friday’s semifinals, where the Moose will meet the No. 1 Colony Knights at 2:30 p.m.
The second boys semifinal was already set before the tournament, and features the No. 2 Wasilla Warriors and No. 3 Soldotna Stars tonight at 6 p.m. The two boys semifinal winners will clash for the NLC title Saturday at 4 p.m.
The Palmer girls got scoring from 11 different players, led by Catherine Uschmann’s 16 and Abriana Busbey’s 14. Palmer used a 23-11 spurt in the second quarter to build a 34-23 halftime lead, then won the second half 33-16 to seal the win.
In the boys game, Palmer’s Jacob Titus had the hot hand in the third quarter, scoring 10 of his game-high 16 points for the Moose, but Kodiak still entered the fourth quarter up 34-28.
The Moose rallied to beat the Bears with a 19-9 fourth-quarter effort, getting help from Lavar Marshall. Marshall notched nine points in the quarter to finish with 13 and lead Palmer to the win.
