The opening game at the Northern Lights Conference Basketball Championships was decided in the final seconds as the Palmer Moose held-off the Soldotna Stars 42-40 in the girls’ bracket pairing between the #4 Moose and #5 Stars.
Palmer 42 – SoHi 40
A 21-point, fourth quarter for the Soldotna Lady Stars pushed SoHi from a 14-point deficit to a 40-39 lead with :55 seconds remaining. SoHi’s rally was fueled by four, three-pointers: two for Katelyn Morrison and two for Josie Sheridan in the final quarter.
The Moose regained the lead at 41-40 with 15 seconds on the clock and added a free throw before the Stars had time expire on the final possession. Final Score: Palmer 42, SoHi 40.
Plagued by a slow offensive start, the SoHi girls trailed 25-12 at the half and 33-19 after three quarters.
Katelyn Morrison, Tanner Inman and Josie Sheridan each scored 10 points for the Stars.
SoHi returns to the court on Friday with a 10 a.m. contest against the loser of the Colony vs Kodiak game on Thursday night. A win on Friday and SoHi will play in the fourth-place game on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Palmer High School.
Follow the Stars on ESPN 1140AM, 96.9 FM and streaming live at radiokenai.com.
Northern Lights Conference Information
The Northern Lights Conference is a standard eight-team bracket with the top two team (NLC has only six teams) receiving first-round byes. The NLC owns two, automatic berths to the ASAA 4A State Basketball Championships and third/fourth place teams are eligible for an at-large berth (2 for 4A division) to state.
Tournament Seeds
Girls: #1 ACS, #2 Wasilla, #3 Colony, #4 Palmer, #5 SoHi, #6 Kodiak
Boys: #1 Colony, #2Kodiak, #3 Palmer, #4 ACS, #5 Wasilla, #6 SoHi
