The visiting Kenai Central girls and boys basketball teams swept Nikiski on Thursday in Peninsula Conference action.

The Peninsula Conference only has four girls teams this season, and three boys teams, so even though Thursday was the conference opener for both schools, the games were pivotal.

The Kenai girls won 52-40 to move to 3-4 overall and drop the Bulldogs to 0-4. The Kardinals boys won 72-52 to improve to 4-3 and drop Nikiski to 0-4.

The four girls teams in the Peninsula Conference are Grace Christian, Homer, Kenai and Nikiski.

At the conference tournament, the Nos. 1 and 4 seeds will play, and the Nos. 2 and 3 seeds will play, and the winners take the league’s two berths to Class 3A state.

Increasing the importance of every conference game is the fact that Grace Christian is the two-time defending Class 3A state champ and is loaded again.

“The fourth-place team will play Grace, and that’s not a good matchup for anybody,” second-year Nikiski head coach Jeremy Garrett said. “So we have to finish second or third.

“We host regions here. So this game was a pivotal game. And it was a tough one. We’ll have to make up for it now.”

Kenai stormed to a 17-8 lead after the first quarter. First-year Kardinals head coach Jake Songer said slow starts have hurt his team this season, including a first quarter where the Kards did not score.

“So we have a goal coming out in the first and third quarter — you’ve got to come out fighting,” he said. “And so I feel like they did a good job.

“Even with Nikiski hitting a 3 right away, we didn’t lose it. I think that speaks to their mental toughness to be able to handle that right away.”

The Kardinals led 30-14 at halftime, but Nikiski got it as close as seven in the fourth quarter.

Garrett said his squad was nervous for the first home game. That, and Kenai’s solid shooting in the first half, was enough to dig a hole that was too great.

Songer said with six games played coming into Thursday, Kenai has had time to fix problems.

“Our defense has gotten much better, and I think that’s what’s going to keep us going,” he said. “It’s always going to start with defense for us.”

Songer said junior Ellsi Miller, freshman Bryleigh Williams and junior McKenzie Spence will all be key players for the team. The coach also said Kenai subs nine deep and it’s important all those players do well.

Miller was on vacation Thursday, while Spence led the Kards with 17 points and Williams had 8.

Also for Kenai, Willow Graham had 10, Evelyn Cooper had 7, Sierra Hershberger and Hallie Songer had 3, and Gracee Every and Allie Hutchins had 2.

Coach Songer said Every did well in her first varsity start, while Cooper provided a boost with good defense and a 3-pointer right off the bench.

Garrett said he has six players that play major minutes, and one of those players is injured.

“We have some subs, but they’re there to give breathers,” the coach said. “That just leads to exhaustion.”

Garrett said seniors Kailey Stynsberg and Avery Ellis, and freshman Blakeley Jorgensen, will be key players.

Stynsberg had 11, while Jorgensen had 10 and Ellis had 5. Also, Abby White had 6, Madison Iyatunguk had 4, and Addison Perkins and Faleshea Anderson had 2. Garrett said Iyatunguk came off the bench and gave the team a big boost in the second half.

Kenai boys 72, Nikiski 52

The Kardinals are now just three wins from clinching a state berth.

Homer, Kenai and Nikiski are the only teams in the conference. The team finishing first in the regular season gets a bye to the conference final and a state berth, while the other two play for a spot in the conference final and a second state berth.

“These regular season games carry a little bit more meaning than they have in years past,” fourth-year Kenai head coach Nolan Rose said.

The Kards used a trapping 1-3-1 zone to lead 22-10 after a quarter and 45-25 at halftime.

“We forced 18 turnovers in the first half, which is a huge number,” Rose said. “In our 1-3-1, that’s what we are trying to do.

“But I thought we did an even better job on the defensive glass. We didn’t give up a single offensive rebound.”

Nikiski head coach Reid Kornstad, now in his 27th season, was happy with the way his team responded. The Bulldogs had the gap down to 59-47 after three quarters before Kenai got away again in the fourth quarter.

“It was the boys,” Kornstad said. “We didn’t really tell them anything different. It was just kind of putting it on them and saying, you guys figure it out.

“They put themselves in a mental space and figured it out for a while.”

Kornstad said the team hasn’t experienced 32 minutes of being able to handle that pressure, but figuring it out for a quarter is a good step forward.

Rose said the Kardinals are young, with 24 of the 26 in the program being freshmen or sophomores.

The coach said sophomore Miles Metteer, who had 22, and senior Caleb Litke, who had 10, will be key players. Rose said the victory was more impressive because Litke and sophomore Mason Tunseth, who had 4, were in foul trouble all night.

Rose added that players like Tunseth and sophomores Carter Felchle and Reid Titus must play well. Titus had 11, while Felchle had 7.

“We maybe don’t have a superstar quite yet, but if everybody’s playing together and doing their jobs, we can be a pretty good basketball team,” Rose said.

The coach said senior Ben Harris also is a key contributor and did his job with 16 points off the bench. Eli Smith added 2, while Garrett McCanna got in a varsity game for the first time.

Kornstad said the Bulldogs have five seniors, but still would qualify as a fairly inexperienced team.

Seniors Kevin Love, Lynn Deveer and Dylan Hall start for Nikiski, while Ethan Ellis and Zach Hockema come off the bench. Love had 16, while Deveer had 14. Hall missed the game with an illness.

Kornstad said Love, junior Carter Eiter and junior Kameron Bird are the key trio in Nikiski. Eiter had 13, while Bird had 9.

“But after those top three guys, all the guys are key,” Kornstad said. “That’s the thing that makes us go. We have a strong bottom of the iceberg.”

Kornstad also said sophomore Ryder Maguire did a good job starting for Hall on Thursday.

“It has a good feel,” Kornstad said. “The guys believe what we’re telling them, and they’re learning to work harder and harder and deal with adversity better and better.

“It’s a long road, but they’re on it.”