SoHi boys, SoHi girls, Kenai boys win to open Al Howard tourney

The Soldotna girls, Soldotna boys and Kenai Central boys basketball teams opened the Revolution Sport and Spine Therapy Al Howard Shootout at Soldotna High School with Thursday victories.

The Stars girls notched a 50-20 victory over Kenai after also defeating the Kardinals 46-30 on Dec. 16 and 47-22 on Dec. 29. The Stars are 6-5 overall, while the Kards are 1-9 overall.

The Stars took control after the opening few minutes and led 13-7 at the quarter mark and 27-11 at halftime.

Soldotna coach Eric Pomerleau said his team is relatively young and inexperienced, with two seniors on the roster.

Senior Kaytlin McAnelly is the only returning starter, while senior Morgan Lemm also saw a lot of varsity minutes last season. Junior Anaulie Sedivy also has significant varsity experience.

“We have some not as much younger, but inexperienced ballhandlers,” Pomerleau said. “When we handle the ball well, we play very well. And when we get loose with the ball, then we get in trouble.

“And so we’re working on that. I thought we did pretty good tonight.”

The coach said ballhandling was the biggest factor in two recent losses to Wasilla.

Pomerleau said the half-court offense and defense are fine. Kenai felt the effect of both Thursday.

“I really liked the defense and the pressure of our guards,” Pomerleau said. “Alyssa McDonald played out of her mind on defense, just putting pressure on the ball.

“We rotated 12 kids throughout the game. We were trying to get our whole varsity group a lot of work tonight.”

Kenai Central head coach Joe Shirley said SoHi’s defense forced 14 turnovers in the first half, but the Kards cut it down to seven turnovers in the second half.

Shirley also said SoHi’s liberal substitution definitely had an effect on the game.

“They are, more power to them, they are very athletic,” Shirley said. “I’m not saying we’re not, but they have more athletes.

“They’re able to platoon out four or five every five minutes.”

Shirley said the scoreboard was not indicative of how his team played. He said this was Kenai’s best game against SoHi this season. He added the team did well running some new things on offense and a new zone.

In addition to turnovers, Shirley said going 6 of 20 from the foul line and giving up too many easy buckets in transition hurt his team.

McAnelly paced the Stars with 16 points, while Hope Hillyer had 8, McDonald had 6, Juliet Innes and Lemm had 5, Sedivy had 4, and Grayson Henry, Laurel Johnson and Sarah Brown had 2.

Shirley said his team showed a lot of hustle, led by Emilee Wilson, Sierra Hershberger and Alex Nelson.

Wilson led with 9 points, while Ellsi Miller had 6, Hershberger had 3 and Grace Kahn had 2.

The Soldotna boys forced a cluster of turnovers early and hit seven 3-pointers in notching a Northern Lights Conference victory over Palmer. The Stars are 2-3 in the league and 5-6 overall.

Soldotna head coach Darren Zibell said his team has a lot of experience this year and that bodes well.

Seniors captains Zac Buckbee, Cameron LaRoque and Andrew Pieh all started last season, and junior guard Izaiah Gilbert saw a lot of starts as well.

Gilbert was at the head of Thursday’s shooting display, nailing four 3-pointers in the first half en route to 16 points.

“This has been our best shooting game all season, obviously,” Zibell said. “We haven’t shot the ball this well in quite awhile.

“I’ve got guys that can shoot, so it’s nice to finally see that we actually hit shots.”

One thing Zibell does not have is size. The Stars deploy a variety of trapping zones to try and keep the opponent from getting the ball down low.

“We were able to force some turnovers early, get some momentum and kind of hang on,” Zibell said.

Pieh, who also had 16, does the bulk of the heavy lifting down low.

“He’s really strong — elevates really well,” Zibell said. “He’s the only guy we have who can really do that.”

Easton Hawkins, with 15, and Jace O’Reagan, with 13, also were in double figures for the Stars.

LaRoque had 7, while Theo Huff had 3 and Buckbee had 2.

For Palmer, Deandre Nika had 11, Tony Sheldon and Isaac Evans had 9, Lukas Owens had 8, Nolan Garner had 6, KJ Henry had 5, Logan Rolston had 3 and Westin Bullock had 1.

The tournament continues Friday with the Palmer boys against Kenai at 3:30 p.m., the Palmer girls against Kenai at 5 p.m. and the Soldotna boys against Birchwood at 6:30 p.m.

Saturday, the Palmer boys play Ninilchik at noon, the Soldotna girls play Palmer at 1:30 p.m. and the Soldotna boys play Kenai at 3 p.m.

The Kenai boys defeated Birchwood Christian 58-30 to move to 3-7 overall.

All the Kardinals on the roster scored. Miles Metteer led with 11, while Ryker Dykema had 9, Daniel Steffensen and William Wilson had 7, Carter Felchle, Trae Pitsch and Ben Harris had 5, Reid Titus had 3, and Zane James and Jacob Katzenberger had 2.

For Birchwood Christian, Noah Guderian had 12, Andrew Severns had 7, Kaleb Worland had 6, Finn Courtney and Micah Tiner had 2, and Karsten Wetzel had 1.

West Valley girls 53, Nikiski 36

The Bulldogs took a nonconference loss Thursday in the opening round of the Denali State Bank Ice Jam in Fairbanks. Nikiski falls to 2-7 overall.

For Nikiski, Kailey Stynsberg pumped in 11, while Alexa Iyatunguk had 10, Shelby Burman and Avery Ellis had 7, and Maggie Grenier had 1.

Service boys 71, Nikiski 32

The Bulldogs fell in nonconference action Thursday in Anchorage. Nikiski falls to 0-7.

For the Bulldogs, Seth Payne had 12, while Carter Eiter had 11, Lynn Deveer had 3, and Connor Ley, Mylan Johnson and Kameron Bird had 2.

Kalskag girls 30, Cook Inlet Academy 29

The host Eagles fell to 0-10 after the close nonconference loss Thursday.

For the Eagles, Ella Rollman had 13, while Rebekah Dillingham had 8, Kristi Stoll had 4 and Mackenzie Carson had 2.

Elizabeth Len had 14 for Kalskag, while Emily Evan had 4, Rose Kameroff and Kristyn Gregory-Ausdahl had 3, Iris Evan had 2, and Maria Kameroff and Danialle Len had 1.

Cook Inlet Academy boys 76, Kalskag 26

The host Eagles moved to 8-2 overall with the Thursday nonconference victory.

For the Eagles, Ian McGarry had 13, Brandt Rollman had 11, Alek McGarry and Matthew Phillips had 9, Jonas Oyoumick had 8, Brady Baeten had 6, Lucas Oyoumick had 5, Silas Barnes, Jeremy Dillingham and John Guerra had 4, Owen Braband had 3

Ninilchik girls 58, Birchwood Christian 38

The host Wolverines notched a nonconference victory Thursday over Birchwood Christian. Ninilchik moved to 6-3 overall.

For Ninilchik, Riley Tucker poured in 25 points, 20 of which came in the first half. Also, Addi McCorison had 12, Elise Becker and Klohie Hughes had 7, Taylor Rickard had 4, Lucy Reynolds and Audrey Acrey had 3, and Lily Berger and Kylee Rickard had 2.

For Birchwood Christian, Leia West had 15, Kaytee Reich had 12 and Annemarie Weihrich had 4.