Regulation was not enough in Tuesday night’s Southcentral Conference game between the Seward and Skyview boys, giving fans another four minutes of intense, high-energy action.
Ultimately, the home team Skyview Panthers edged away in the overtime period to beat Seward 49-45 and improve to 2-6 in the conference (8-12 overall). Seward dropped to 4-4 in the conference (10-10 overall).
“This sets up nicely going into regions,” said Skyview coach Jesse Settlemyer. “Everybody goes into regions 0-0, so this gives us some momentum going into that. We’re just excited to pull it out in the end.”
Skyview senior Micah Hilbish clinched the victory with four seconds left in overtime by sinking two free throws. Hilbish led Skyview with 18 points, and teammate Chad Harley pumped in 10.
“We just had to stay focused and disciplined,” said junior Tim Duke. “We weren’t really making shots here, we were rushing, so we had to go back and our defense just took care of it.”
Duke and Hilbish’s speed and agility matched up well with Seward’s guard duo of Matt Moore and Michael Marshall. On Tuesday, the shots were falling in favor of the former, rather than the latter.
Skyview held Seward to only seven points in the first half. In comparison, the Seahawks put up 41 in the first half against Nikiski last week.
Part of the low scoring was the difficulty in cracking Skyview’s defense, but for much of the half, shots that usually fall were simply not falling for Seward.
“We would have rather had 41,” Seward coach Curtis Berry teased. “The final minutes, we were just trying to keep the energy high and let (Skyview) know we weren’t going down without a fight. I wish we could have done that all game.
“The fact of the matter is, they’re a good team.”
What turned out to be an exciting and even matchup between the two teams started out very unevenly. Skyview got out to a 12-3 lead after one quarter, and led 21-7 at the half. Skyview’s offense was dictated by driving layups — many from transition — as the Panthers did not record a single 3-pointer all game.
“We talked about getting out in transition when the opportunities present themselves,” Settlemyer said. “That’s something we work on in practice, different aspects of transition, because it’s opportunities to get points.
“We did that and we got some looks, we missed some of them, and that gave them some opportunities.”
Matt Moore led Seward with 20 points, one week after scoring 34 against Nikiski, but was held to only two in the first half.
After Skyview scored the opening bucket of the second half, Seward eventually found its rhythm, getting three layups and a trey from Moore during a 17-6 Seward run that closed their deficit to three points.
With 3 minutes, 55 seconds, left in the game’s fourth quarter, Skyview had distanced itself with a 36-27 lead, but Moore scored eight straight points to make it a one-point Skyview lead.
“We don’t have five or six LeBron James’ out there,” Berry said. “And that’s not to take anything away from our guys, but they try to be skilled, and we have a number of athletes, some cross-country runners, and what they have, they have in spades.”
With 1:06 left in regulation, Seward took a 38-36 lead on a jumper from Michael Wolfe, but Hilbish tied things up again with a step-back jumpshot with 48 ticks left. Skyview wrangled a steal away during Seward’s next possession and Bailey Jones hit a go-ahead jumper with 25 seconds left.
“We were really hunting for a great shot,” Settlemyer said. “We were in a pass-and-cut offense. We wanted to move the ball and be strong with the ball, and we knew eventually if we could be strong with the ball they would start fouling.”
However, Seward was determined to not go away quietly, and with six seconds left, Alex Pahno tipped in a layup to make it 40-all.
In overtime, Skyview struck first with a Jacob Carlson bucket.
“We were on a three-game losing streak, and we just wanted to win,” Duke said. “So this game really brought us up.”
Skyview extended its lead to 47-41 with 34 ticks left in overtime, but Seward got two more baskets in after fouling situations to close the gap to two points. Hilbish then sealed the win with his free throws. Overall, Hilbish hit all shots he took from the charity stripe in overtime.
Skyview will finish off its regular season with a conference matchups at home against Homer on Friday and on the road Saturday in Nikiski.
Seward girls 38, Skyview 31
The visiting Seahawks turned on a strong second-half performance to nab a Southcentral Conference victory Tuesday night at Skyview.
Ashley VonBorstel led Seward with 16 points, and teammate Kiana Clemens added 10.
“We managed to keep our fouls under control today,” said Seward coach Mark Clemens. “Skyview plays hard, there’s no gimmie on that one. They’ve got some outside shooters, they look inside, they’ve gotten better in the last year.”
Skyview was paced by Sam Reynolds with nine points — all on 3-pointers.
The win lifts Seward to 6-2 in the conference (12-9 overall). Skyview drops to 3-3 in the conference.
“We had too many turnovers in the first half,” Clemens said. “We threw it away 12 times in four minutes. We gave them a lot of points in the first half, then we cleaned it up and began trapping them, and it forced them into turnovers.”
Trailing 17-8 midway through the second quarter, Skyview turned up the pressure and ended the first half on a 12-0 run, getting buckets from Reynolds, Hayley Ramsell and Meghan Powers, resulting in a 20-17 lead for Skyview.
Seward got back into a groove in the second half, getting steals and turnover points on Skyview while holding them to only two points. The ‘Hawks took the lead for good on a jumper from VonBorstel with 2:20 left in the third quarter.
Skyview got within three points of Seward as late as 1:11 left in the game, but three costly turnovers in the final minute decided the Panthers’ fate.
Homer boys 69, Kenai 63, OT
After holding off Nikiski late Monday night in Homer, the Mariners reported to Kenai Central for a 6 p.m. game Tuesday and held off the Kardinals in overtime. It was the second-straight overtime loss for the Kards.
Kenai Central had the lead in the final minute of the game, but Quinn Daugharty hit a shot high off the glass with 34 seconds remaining to cut Kenai’s lead to 51-50. With 25 seconds left, Jonah Theisen hit a pair of foul shots to put the lead at 53-50.
Daugharty came down and was short on a 3-pointer, but Homer got the rebound and Kenneth Schneider drained a 3 to knot the game at 53 with seven seconds left. Kenai called timeout but did not get off a solid shot before the buzzer sounded.
The scoring in overtime started fast — Daugharty hit a bucket, Kenai’s Keith Ivy answered with a 3, Daugharty nailed a 3 of his own, then Trevor Shirnberg had a rebound layup for a 58-58 game with 2:30 left.
After that, Homer took over thanks to foul shooting and rebounding. Schneider missed a pair of foul shots, but Sheldon Hutt got the rebound and was fouled, hitting his two foul shots.
At the 1:19 mark, Hutt hit 1 of 2 for a 61-58 lead. After a Shirnberg miss, Daugharty missed a pair of foul shots but again Hutt got a big rebound, putting in a layup for a 63-58 game. After Kenai missed a 3, Daugharty put things out of reach with two foul shots for a 65-58 lead.
Austin McKee hit a 3 for a 65-61 game with 26 seconds left, but Daugharty again made two from the line to keep things from getting interesting.
Daugharty finished with 28 points to lead Homer, after having five points in the first half. Also for Homer, Hutt had 14, Filip Reutov had eight, Schneider had seven, Drew Brown had six, Brandon Beachy had four and Paul Trowbridge had two.
McKee had 19 for Kenai, including five 3-pointers, while Miles Jones had 10, including three 3-pointers.
Also for Kenai, Shirnberg had 17, Theisen had eight, Ivy had five, Josh Jackman and Kyle Foree had two apiece, and Vlad Glushkov had one.
Nikolaevsk girls 38, Ninilchik 27
The visiting Warriors took an early lead and made it hold up in Peninsula Conference action Tuesday in Ninilchik.
Nikolaevsk led 12-4 after the first quarter en route to a 22-14 halftime lead. The Warriors then led 32-15 after the third quarter.
Nianiella Dorvall paced Nikolaevsk with 12 points, while Jessica Rogers and Jordan Finney had nine for the Wolverines.
Nikolaevsk boys 41, Ninilchik 36
The visiting Warriors continued to show how good the Peninsula Conference tournament will be.
Nikolaevsk had won its last four Peninsula Conference games, but all have been tight in the second half. Tuesday, the Warriors trailed 22-16 at half and 30-27 going into the final quarter.
Neil Gordeev had 10 points to lead the Warriors, while Sam Mireles had 12 and Austin White had 10.
Tuesday boys
Panthers 49, Seahawks 45, OT
Skyview 12 9 7 12 9 —49
Seward 3 4 17 16 5 —45
SKYVIEW (49) — Jones 1 1-3 3, Duke 2 3-4 7, Carlson 3 1-4 7, Cook 2 0-0 4, Harley 4 2-4 10, Hilbish 7 4-4 18. Totals 19 11-19 49.
SEWARD (45) — Marshall 3 0-1 7, Pahno 3 1-2 8, T. Berry 0 1-2 1, Wolfe 2 1-2 5, Sieverts 0 0-0 0, Moore 8 2-2 20, Broughton 1 1-4 3, Jackson 0 1-2 1. Totals 17 7-15 45.
3-point field goals — Seward 4 (Moore 4, Marshall 1, Pahno 1).
Team fouls — Skyview 15; Seward 15.
Warriors 41, Wolverines 36
Nikolaevsk 8 8 11 14 —41
Ninilchik 8 14 8 6 —36
NIKOLAEVSK (41) — Nelson 2 1-1 5, A. Yakunin 2 0-1 4, N. Fefelov 2 3-5 9, Gordeev 5 0-0 10, F. Molodih 3 0-0 6, J. Fefelov 2 1-2 5, Kalugin 1 0-0 2. Totals — 17 5-9 41.
NINILCHIK (36) — Presley 1 0-0 2, Mireles 5 2-4 12, Delgado 1 0-0 2, Bartolowits 2 0-0 4, Thorn 2 2-2 6, White 5 0-0 10. Totals — 16 4-6 36.
3-point goals — Nikolaevsk 2 (N. Fefelov 2). Team fouls — Nikolaevsk 13, Ninilchik 12. Fouled out — Presley.
Tuesday girls
Seahawks 38, Panthers 31
Seward 10 7 8 13 —38
Skyview 8 12 2 7 —31
SEWARD (38) — VonBorstel 7 1-2 16, Kromrey 3 3-4 9, Jackson 0 1-2 1, Whiteshield 1 0-0 2, Clemens 2 6-10 10. Totals 13 11-18 38.
SKYVIEW (31) — Powers 2 0-0 5, Ramsell 2 3-6 7, Mahan 0 0-0 0, Stallings 0 0-0 0, Reynolds 3 0-0 9, Rouse 2 0-2 4, Glaves 2 2-4 6. Totals 11 5-12 31.
3-point field goals — Seward 1 (VonBorstel 1); Skyview 4 (Reynolds 3, Powers 1).
Team fouls — Seward 10; Skyview 12.
Warriors 38, Wolverines 27
Nikolaevsk 12 10 8 8 —38
Ninilchik 4 10 1 12 —27
NIKOLAEVSK (38) — Ki. Klaich 0 0-0 0, Fefelov 2 0-0 4, So. Kalugin 1 0-0 2, Stafford 5 0-0 10, Se. Kalugin 4 0-0 8, Dorvall 6 0-2 12, Hickman 1 0-2 2. Totals — 19 0-4 38.
NINILCHIK (27) — Rogers 4 1-5 9, Cooper 0 0-0 0, Sinclair 1 0-0 2, Goins 0 0-0 0, Ehlers 2 0-0 4, Finney 4 1-3 9, Me. Clark 1 1-3 3, Mi. Clark 0 0-0 0. Totals — 12 3-11 27.
3-point goals — none. Team fouls — Nikolaevsk 15, Ninilchik 5. Fouled out — none.
