Sentinel Staff
Sitka High School boys and girls basketball teams played at the Palmer Elks Showdown over the weekend.
The Wolves dropped games to 4A Palmer 82-34, 3A Grace Christian 46-39 and 4A West Valley 63-55.
Wolves coach Jarret Hirai said the benefit of the contests is playing against opponents they haven’t seen before.
“It challenges us to play the way we want to,” Hirai said. “Obviously, the Palmer game we got outplayed in every category and we played on our heels all night. Not the way we want to approach any team no matter how good they are.”
Against Palmer, seniors Austin Morrison and Morgan Simic led with 9 points apiece, junior Asa Demmert 5, junior Max Johnson 4, senior Aedon Dumag 3, senior CJ Taccad 2, senior John Arce 2. Sitka was 6-9 from the line, Palmer 17-19. Lavar Marshall led the Moose with 20 points and Day Osiensky added 19. Palmer led 22-14 after the first quarter and 39-21 at the half. The Moose outscored the Wolves 25-7 in the third stanza to lead 64-28 starting the final eight minutes.
Junior Gavin Flores led the Wolves with 13 points against Grace and with 11 points against West Valley.
“I like how we came back after Thursday’s game against Palmer and played hard against both Grace and West,” Hirai said. “Despite the losses the team is slowly coming together, gaining confidence in each other and individually.”
Hirai said he really liked that the Wolves had 7-9 players scoring in each game.
“That shows unselfishness and better team play,” he said. “We will continue to work and get better on all parts of the game. February will be a busy month and we will move forward as a team.”
The Wolves next host Lathrop on January 30-31.
The Lady Wolves lost to 4A Palmer last weekend 54-50 behind 20 points from senior Abby Forrester and 12 from freshman Chloe Morrison. Senior Kyleigh McArthur added 6 points, junior Tiffany Elefante 4, seniors Jessica Davis, Shaye Jensen, sophomore Jocelyn Brady, and freshman Tawny Smith 2 each. Sitka was 12-20 at the line, Palmer 5-10. Catherine Uschmann led the Moose with 21 points and Abriana Busbey added 17. Palmer led 19-12 after the first quarter and 31-20 at the half. Sitka scored 18 points in the third stanza to Palmer’s 12, and trailed 43-38 starting the final eight minutes.
The Lady Wolves also fell to 4A West Valley 73-46. Complete score books were not available at press time.
The Lady Wolves travel to Juneau-Douglas this weekend. They follow that trip with a game across the bridge at Mt. Edgecumbe on January 29.
The Mt. Edgecumbe boys and girls head to the Barrow Invitational this weekend. The Braves tourney field features two of the top three teams in the 3A coaches poll with Anchorage Christian and Valdez. Barrow is ranked 4th.
The girls field features the state’s top-ranked Anchorage Christian, 3rd- ranked Mt. Edgecumbe and 4th-ranked Barrow.
Following are the Alaska high school basketball rankings to date:
– 4A Boys - 1. Dimond; 2. Colony; 3. East; 4. West Anchorage; 5. Ketchikan.
– 4A Girls - 1. Dimond; 2. West Anchorage; 3. West Valley; 4. Wasilla; 5. Chugiak.
– 3A Boys - 1. Anchorage Christian; 2. Valdez; 3. Monroe Catholic; 4. Barrow; 5. Ben Eielson.
– 3A Girls - 1. Anchorage Christian; 2. Nikiski; 3. Mt Edgecumbe; 4. Barrow; 5. Galena.
– 2A Boys - 1. Metlakatla; 2. Cordova; 3. Glennallen; 4. Unalaska; 5. Point Hope.
– 2A Girls - 1. Point Hope; 2. Wrangell; 3. Nenana; 4. Craig; 5. Cordova.
– 1A Boys - 1. Noatak; 2. King Cove; 3. Lumen Christi. 4. Anaktuvuk Pass; 5. Tanana.
– 1A Girls - 1. King Cove; 2. Aniak; 3. Shaktoolik; 4. Nikolaevsk; 5. Teller.
