The Soldotna Girls and Boys split their final two 4A, Northern Lights Conference games of the regular season against the Moose in Palmer on Friday night. Then on Saturday afternoon, the Kenai Girls and Boys also split their final 3A Peninsula Conference games against the Seahawks in Seward.
Heading into the conference tournaments this weekend, the Lady Stars hold the 5th overall seed in the Northern Lights Conference; the SoHi Boys are the 3rd overall seed. The Kenai Girls enter the Peninsula Conference Tournament as the #3 seed, while the boys are in the #4 seed.
Friday, March 1
Girls
Palmer 56, Soldotna 47
The Soldotna Girls entered Friday night’s game having won five straight games over Palmer dating back to last season. It was Senior Night for the Moose, however, and the stands were full of fans who contributed to a high energy environment for the Palmer Girls–an energy the Stars were unable to match.
The game remained close through the first half, and the Stars only trailed 17-13 after two quarters, but foul trouble for Hope Hillyer made Soldotna vulnerable coming out of the locker room in the third.
With Hillyer on the bench much of the third quarter, Palmer was able to mount a 10 point lead. SoHi did close the gap in the fourth, cutting the Palmer lead to five points, but the Moose kept the Stars just out of reach and in the end some clutch free throws sealed the game for Palmer.
Boys
Palmer 64, Soldotna 69
The last time the Stars and Moose played, Soldotna knocked off Palmer big with a 22 point victory. Friday night was a different story. The Stars trailed until the final minutes of the game, at one point falling 15 points behind. A third and fourth quarter comeback, however, gave the Stars a big win and the overall 3-seed in this weekend’s NLC tournament.
The Soldotna Boys were without the team’s scoring leader Izaiah Gilbert for the first 2 1/2 quarters for unspecified reasons. Gilbert returned in the 3rd, however, and contributed to the comeback. The most notable SoHi stat for the game was the team combining to shoot 25 for 27 from the free-throw line, including 19 of 19 in the fourth quarter.
The Moose opened the first with big 3-pointers from Westin Bullock and jumped out to 20-14 lead. They continued their scoring in the second and held the Stars only 7 points. SoHi trailed by 13 at the half.
In the third the Moose led by as many as 15, but once Gilbert returned to the lineup the Stars began chipping away.
In the fourth SoHi closed the Palmer lead to 3 points multiple times, but the Moose kept pulling away until the final two minutes, when Palmer put Soldotna in the bonus. From then on it was all SoHi and the Stars streak of made free throws put the game on ice.
Andrew Pieh led SoHi in scoring and rebounding with 22 points and 8 rebounds.
Saturday, March 2
Girls
Seward 37, Kenai 53
Since the return of Emma Beck to the Kenai Girls lineup, the Kardinals have been a completely different team. They’ve steadily climbed in the win column over the last month, and on Saturday captured the 3rd overall seed in the upcoming Peninsula Conference tournament with a big win over the Seward Seahawks.
Kenai jumped out to a quick, 10 point lead in the first quarter behind 14 points from Beck and held the Seahawks to only 8 points.
The Kardinals extended their lead heading into the locker room at the half, outscoring Seward 20-10 in the second quarter. At one point Kenai had a run of 24-0 that stretched from the first quarter into the second. Kenai led 38-18 at halftime.
Seward came out of the locker room firing, and opened the second half on a 9-0 run, but couldn’t stem the tide of scoring from the Kardinals completely and a big defensive fourth quarter from Kenai rounded out the 16 point win.
Beck finished the game with 33 points and 16 rebounds.
Boys
Seward 51, Kenai 22
The Kenai Boys fell to the Seward Seahawks on Saturday. The Kardinals have shown defensive progress all season, and executed very well on defense in the first half, but couldn’t hold the Seahawks offense in the 3rd and 4th quarters.
In the first half Kenai held the Seahawks to two of their lowest scoring quarters all season, only allowing 18 Seward points. On the other side of the ball, however, the Kardinals had major offensive woes and didn’t break 10 points in any quarter. They trailed 18-13 at the half.
Seward broke through in the second half, outscoring Kenai 13-3 in the third quarter, and 20-6 in the fourth.
The Kardinals have been focusing on overcoming height discrepancies against their opponents by emphasizing the 3-ball, but were unable to connect from beyond the arc most of the night, only managing four 3-pointers throughout the game.
