A day after their perfect season came to an end, the Soldotna girls lost again in a 58-42 game to West Valley at the Lady Lynx Prep Shootout at Dimond.
The Stars dropped to 16-2 overall this season.
SoHi won their opening day game Wednesday over Ketchikan to earn their spot in the tournament’s Gold Bracket, but two straight losses to Dimond and West Valley left them competing for seventh-place honors Saturday at 11:15 p.m. against West Anchorage.
In the Lady Lynx Maroon Bracket, Kenai Central lost 36-32 to Lathrop in the semifinals and will face South Anchorage for third place in the bracket Saturday at noon.
In the loss to West Valley, the SoHi girls were led by Aliann Schmidt’s 15 points, Brittani Blossom’s 11 points and Ituau Tuisaula’s 10. The Wolfpack were led by Sierra Tate, who got going early and ended with 19 points
West Valley built a 34-22 lead by halftime, then held on as SoHi cut the advantage down to 42-33 entering the fourth quarter. The Wolfpack sealed the win by outscoring the Stars 16-9 in the final quarter.
In the Kenai game, the Kardinals led 25-24 entering the fourth quarter, but Lathrop slipped by with a 12-7 run to take the win.
Lathrop’s Ella Roberts scored seven of her game-high 16 points in the fourth quarter, including her team’s last five points. Kenai got 14 points from Jaycie Calvert on four 3-pointers, and Brooke Satathite chipped in eight.
Kenai’s defense played strong in the second quarter, helping the Kards outscore the Malamutes 8-1 to give Kenai a 15-12 halftime lead.
Homer Winter Carnival
Friday in Homer, the host Mariner girls beat Seward 43-28, while the Homer boys prevailed 51-35 over Seward.
In other games, the Galena boys beat Sitka 57-47 while the Galena girls beat Sitka 46-43.
The Homer boys staked out a 28-15 lead at halftime, but the Seahawks kept them honest by winning the third quarter and keeping the deficit to 39-28, but the Mariners held on to beat their conference opponents.
Stanley Swoboda hit five treys to lead Homer with 17 points, while Seward was paced by Connor Spanos’ 12 points and Sam Koster’s 10.
In the girls game, Marina Carroll fueled the Mariners with 19 points while the Homer defense did the rest. Homer held Seward to five points in the first half, but the Seahawks finally awoke and outscored Homer 13-9 in the third quarter to cut the gap to 24-18. The Mariners eventually came back and held on for the win with a 19-10 fourth quarter, hitting 13 free throws in the final eight minutes.
Ninilchik Invitational Tournament
The Ninilchik boys prevailed 55-35 Friday over their conference rivals Cook Inlet Academy.
Garrett Koch and George Nelson paved the way to victory with 14 points each, while Jake Clark had 11 and Cole Hadro pitched in 10. Mason Zeigler and Josh Boyd scored 10 each to pace CIA.
The Wolverines raced out to leads of 22-8 in the first quarter and 32-11 at halftime, but the Eagles kept their rivals honest by winning the third quarter 17-9, which cut the lead to 41-28. Ninilchik held on by outscoring CIA 14-7 in the final eight minutes.
CIA boys also defeated Aniak on Friday with a score of 71-57. Zeigler netted 32 points for the Eagles and was 8 for 12 from the foul line.
Aniak stayed close to CIA, trailing 31-26 at the half and 45-40 at the end of three quarters, but CIA finally pulled away in the fourth by outscoring Aniak 25-17.
In girls action Friday, Cook Inlet Academy got the better of their conference foes Ninilchik in a 40-19 win thanks to hot shooting from behind the arc.
The Eagles led 19-12 at halftime, then buried four 3’s in the third quarter to build a 32-16 gap over the Wolverines.
Adara Warren led Ninilchik with 17 points, including two treys in the third quarter, while Isabella Koch paced CIA with 11 points.
Grace boys 49, Soldotna 40
The Class 3A Grace Christian boys toppled the 4A Soldotna Stars Friday in a nonconference meeting in Anchorage.
Monroe boys 60, Nikiski 40
The Monroe Catholic Rams split a pair of games Friday in their second night of play against the Nikiski Bulldogs in non-conference action at Monroe High School.
After a 62-22 win on Thursday, the Ram boys downed the Bulldogs 60-40 despite a close first half.
The Rams were ahead only 23-22 at the half, before outscoring the Bulldogs 15-6 in the third quarter and 22-12 in the fourth to pull ahead.
Isaac Garcia put up a game high 18 points for the Rams, while Izak Lohrke dropped in 13 and Quinn McHenry contributed 12.
Jace Kornstad was the only player in the double digits for the Bulldogs with 12.
Nikiski girls 44, Monroe 42
In the girls matchup, the Bulldogs outscored the Rams by one point each half to eke out a win for the second night in a row. The Bulldogs bested the Rams 46-42 on Thursday.
Bethany Carstens was responsible for over half the Bulldogs total points, putting up a game-high 25, including three 3-pointers.
The Rams had only three players with points on the scoreboard. Grace Hodges and Katie Bast dropped in 17 each and Madi Leslie added eight.
Friday boys
Mariners 51, Seahawks 35
Seward 8 7 13 7 —35
Homer 15 13 11 12 —51
SEWARD (35) — Basalo 0, Spanos 12, Koster 10, Moriarty 1, Cronin 2, Ingalls 3, Pfeiffenberger 6, Jarvis 0, Nilsson 1.
HOMER (51) — Beachy 9, Adkins 4, Reutov 7, McGhee 0, Raymond 0, Anderson 4, Knapp 2, McGhee 8, Swoboda 17.
3-point FG — Seward 3 (Koster 2, Ingalls 1); Homer 6 (Swoboda 5, Beachy 1).
Team fouls — Seward 11; Homer 10. Fouled out — none.
Wolverines 55, Eagles 35
CIA 8 3 17 7 —35
Ninilchik 22 10 9 14 —55
CIA (35) — Moos 7, Boyd 4, Johnson 2, Cragg 0, Beard 0, Leaf 0, Walsh 0, Anderson 0, VanDeGriff 2, Zeigler 10, Boyd 10.
NINILCHIK (55) — Presley 0, Hadro 10, Koch 14, Clark 11, Devila 0, Lemons 6, Moto 0, Nelson 14.
3-point FG — CIA 0; Ninilchik 4 (Hadro 2, Nelson 2).
Team fouls — CIA 7; Ninilchik 6. Fouled out — none.
Friday girls
Mariners 43, Seahawks 28
Seward 3 2 13 10 —28
Homer 10 5 9 19 —43
SEWARD (28) — Lemme 0, Ambrosiani 0, Schilling 2, Von Borstel 13, Sieverts 0, Jackson 11, Dougherty 0, Casagranda 0, Sewell 2, Sieminski 0.
HOMER (43) — Rhodes 1, Inama 5, Bishop 5, Johnson 2, Bales 0, Doughty 5, Todd 6, Parish 0, Carroll 19.
3-point FG — Seward 2 (Von Borstel 1, Jackson 1); Homer 1 (Inama).
Team fouls — Seward 15; Homer 15. Fouled out — Sieverts, Sewell.
Wolfpack 58, Stars 42
West Valley 16 18 8 16 —58
Soldotna 10 12 11 9 —42
WEST VALLEY (58) — Tate 19, Blasey 0, Silva 8, May 10, Martellaro 4, Vazzlo 6, Samyd 0, Blasey 11.
SOLDOTNA (42) — McGillivray 0, Buckbee 0, Blossom 11, A. Schmidt 15, Bouschor 0, Tuisaula 10, Holland 2, Leadens 0, Crosby-Schneider 4, D. Schmidt 0.
3-point FG — West Valley 2 (Tate 1, Blasey 1); Soldotna 4 (Blossom 3, A. Schmidt 1).
Team fouls — West Valley 8; Soldotna 13. Fouled out — none.
Malamutes 36, Kardinals 32
Lathrop 11 1 12 12 —36
Kenai 7 8 10 7 —32
LATHROP (36) — Wiseman 0, Tuck 0, Johnson 0, Roberts 16, Kraska 11, Perez 2, Oates 7.
KENAI (32) — Calvert 14, Galloway 0, Hamilton 2, Maw 3, Hanson 5, Streiff 0, L. Satathite 0, Severson 0, B. Satathite 8.
3-point FG — Lathrop 3 (Roberts 3); Kenai 6 (Calvert 4, Maw 1, Hanson 1).
Team fouls — Lathrop 7; Kenai 19. Fouled out — Maw.
Eagles 40, Wolverines 19
CIA 10 9 13 8 —40
Ninilchik 5 7 4 3 —19
CIA (40) — Nelson 0, Henderson 5, Hyatt 0, Nelson 6, Dohse 0, Nelson 4, Castenhulz 3, Cragg 0, Cizek 5, Hammond 0, Warren 17.
NINILCHIK (19) — Okonek 1, Jasper 0, Calabrese 1, Robuck 4, Corey 2, Koch 11, Calabrese 0, Denboer 0, Okonek 0, Cooper 0.
3-point FG — CIA 4 (Warren 2, Castenulz 1, S. Nelson 1); Ninilchik 3 (Koch 3).
Team fouls — CIA 7; Ninilchik 14. Fouled out — none.
