The 2021 Northern Lights Conference Basketball Championships, hosted at Colony High School, features five 4A programs (girls and boys) representing the NLC in three days of competition with two automatic berths to the ASAA 4A State Basketball Championships on the line. The NLC tournament runs Thursday, March 18th through Championship Saturday, March 20th.
The Soldotna Stars girls and boys teams, seeded fourth overall, faced #5 Kodiak in the tournament’s first round on Thursday at Colony.
SoHi Girls 66 -Kodiak 47
The Soldotna girls lead 22-8 after one quarter and never trailed enroute to a 66-48 victory over the Kodiak Bears in Thursday’s opening tournament pairing. The win advances the Stars to a 6 p.m. Friday night winner’s-bracket pairing against the #1 seed Colony Knights.
SoHi lead 37-21 at the half and 56-33 after three quarters. Josie Sheridan scored 26 points for the Stars.
SoHi Boys 35 – Kodiak 41 Overtime
After battling to take a lead in the fourth quarter, the SoHi boys surrendered the lead late in the fourth and lost in overtime 41-35 to the Kodiak Bears in the boys tournament opener at Colony.
SoHi opened with an 8-7 lead in the first quarter and a 17-16 lead at the half. Kodiak took the lead at 27-25 after three quarters and the two teams battled to a 35-35 tie at the end of regulation. In the overtime, Kodiak held SoHi scoreless and the Bears recorded a 41-35 victory. Jakob Brown and Ethan Sewell each scored 11 points for SoHi; Kodiak’s Jackson Krug lead the Bears with 15 points.
The Stars have Friday off and return to the play-in game Saturday at 11 a.m. Kodiak plays #1 seed Colony at 8 p.m. on Friday night in the winner’s bracket.
All tournament games involving the Stars will be broadcast on ESPN 1140AM and streamed live and free at radiokenai.com
