The Soldotna Star basketball teams learned much about themselves and about the competition in the Northern Lights Conference during their three-day road swing through the Mat-Su Valley. Both teams drop three games to northern teams Colony, Wasilla and Palmer.
Palmer Girls 58 – SoHi Girls 31
Turnovers, turnovers and more turnovers plagued the SoHi girls in a 58-31 loss to the Palmer Moose on Saturday in Palmer. The Stars trailed 22-13 at the half and Palmer pulled away in the third quarter. Morgan Bouschor and Drysta Crosby-Schneider each scored seven points for the Stars. The SoHi girls had an opportunity to earn the #3 seed into the Northern Lights Conference tournament with a victory over Palmer.
Palmer Boys 57 – SoHi Boys 56
The Soldotna boys produced their best effort of the regular season on the final day of the regular season as SoHi pushed Palmer to the limit before falling to the Moose on 57-56 on Saturday.
The Moose broke a 56-56 tie with :02 seconds remaining with a game-winning freethrow.
The Stars trailed 17-12 in the first quarter and trailed by three 30-27 at the half. Down by six (43-37) to open the fourth quarter, SoHi rallied to tied the game and take a four point lead into the final 2:00 minutes. A late Palmer run tied the game at 56 and Palmer’s Elijah Evans hit a final freethrow for the 57-56 victory.
Ethan Sewell lead the Stars with 20 points and shot 9 of 12 from the freethrow line; Nate Johnson added 10 for the Stars.
NLC Tournament Update
The Northern Lights Conference Championships are scheduled for March 18-20 at Colony High School. Final conference records will be submitted and the brackets should be finalized following a conference meeting on Tuesday. The Kodiak Bears (girls and boys teams), who have not left Kodiak Island all season, will declare their intentions in regards to attending the NLC tournament. If Kodiak accepts its berths, the tournament will open on Thursday, March 18th with a pair of play-in games between the #4 and #5 seeds to the tournament. NLC teams include: Colony, Wasilla, Palmer, Kodiak and SoHi.
