The final game of the day matches the Conference and home town favorite Tri-Valley Viking Warriors against the #4 seed Effie Kokrine Warriors. Leo Huntington and Darren Silas fueled Effie Kokrine’s 50-45 win over the Wasilla Lake Rams with 18 and 12 points respectively. All twelve Viking Warrior player scored in Tri-Valley’s opening round win over Anderson. Sterling Shreeve led the way with 14 points and Steven DeCoeur added 13. The winner of this game advances to play the undefeated Northway Warriors tomorrow at 4:45 pm.
First Quarter:
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Second Quarter:
Third Quarter:
Fourth Quarter:
The #1 seed Walter Northway Lady Warriors play their first game of the Central Interior Conference Tournament. The Lady Warriors only lost once in the Conference during the regular season. Can the #4 seed Tri-Valley Viking Warriors find a way to stop Katherine Albert and the Northway attack. Hannah Keith led the Viking Warriors to a first round win earlier today with 16 points, and received signigicant help from Kristen Scholten and Windy Gore, who each scored 12. It’s the Conference favorite vs. the home town favorite, Northway vs. Tri-Valley.
First quarter:
Second quarter:
Third quarter:
Fourth quarter:
The second day of the Central Interior Conference Tournament starts with the first of four girls games, and the first of eight games overall. Kristen Scholten and Windy Gore will try to push the #4 seed Tri-Valley Viking Warriors to a home floor win over the #5 seed Birchwood Warriors. The winner of this game will advance to a second round game against the tournament’s #1 seed, the Northway Warriors.
The Tri-Valley Viking Warriors are not only hosting the Central Interior Conference Tournament, they enter as the #1 seed. The Viking Warriors finished their regular season at 20-1, and were undefeated in conference play. Tonight they start their effort to put last year’s second place finish at the conference tournament behind them. In the opening round they match up against the Anderson Grizzlies, the conference’s eighth seed.
The 17-1 Tri-Valley Viking Warriors come to Susitna Valley to play the 12-4 Rams. These teams have met once before, in the semi-finals at this year’s Nenana Invitational Tournament. The Viking Warriors secured a nine point victory on route to the N.I.T. Championship. Tri-Valley looks for their third straight win on this road trip before heading home to close out the season next weekend. Tri-Valley will then host the Central Interior Conference tournament on their home floor on the following weekend. The Viking Warriors will enter that tournament as the number 1 seed.
The Susitna Valley Lady Rams play the Tri-Valley Viking Warriors for the first time since the Tri-Valley Invitational. The Viking Warriors won that meeting handily. The Lady Rams are much improved. Other than a recent letdown against Cook Inlet Academy, the Rams have been hot.
Tri-Valley Viking Warriors
Rams huddle
What an odd way to name a post two days after a couple of disappointing home losses for the Rams. But, there is some good news.
Let’s face it. The Rams suffered from a letdown on Saturday. Which is not to say that the Cook Inlet squads were not strong, or didn’t earn their wins, but their was a considerable absence of energy in the Sunshine gym on Saturday. I didn’t bring it, the crowd didn’t bring it. Susitna Valley came up short. Cook Inlet Academy didn’t.
Tiffany Smith, Megan Bauder, and Sadie Arneson out hustled and outplayed the Rams on route to a convincing 37-23 victory. Matthew Moffis erased an eight point deficit, and built an eight point lead with 20 third quarter points, leading the Gentleman Eagles to a 52-45 win with 37 points. The Rams squads didn’t operate on a high level, but fortunately or unfortunately, that is the nature of sports. The transitive property rarely applies, and heights achieved on one weekend don’t necessarily carry forth to the next. The good news is that the Rams will get to return to game action on their home floor quickly.
Thanks to the willingness of the Tri-Valley Viking Warriors, the varsity games that were cancelled due to inclimate weather and hazardous Parks Highway road conditions on Thursday have been rescheduled for this afternoon. Tri-Valley is preparing to host the Central Interior Conference tournament in nine days. A single berth in the 2A State Tournament is on the line for both the girls and the boys. A pair of games against the Susitna Valley squads will serve as good preparation for their regional tournament. For the Rams this is an opportunity not only to play two high quality opponents, but a chance to avenge losses earlier in the season.
There you have it. The night of high energy basketball that we lost on Thursday has been restored. There will be a girls varsity game at 3:00 pm, followed immediately by a boys varsity game. If you have yet to see the Rams and/or the Viking Warriors in action this season, consider a trip out to the Susitna Valley gym this afternoon. If you can’t catch the action live, check it out on a short delay here on TALKEETNA famous.
Bad news sports fans. Parks Highway road conditions have dampened the spirits of both Susitna Valley basketball teams. Both Rams teams had eagerly anticipated rematches against the Tri-Valley Viking Warrior teams, but alas, the weather hasn’t cooperated. All Susitna Valley vs. Tri-Valley games set for this afternoon have been cancelled. Because the teams are not in the same region and the regular season has less than two weeks remaining, it is not likely that today’s games will be rescheduled.
The Susitna Valley Lady Rams had been looking forward to avenging a lopsided loss to the Viking Warriors at the Tri-Valley Invitational Tournament. The Lady Rams are a much improved team since that defeat. This past weekend, at the Crowley Classic, the Lady Rams accomplished what had seemed unthinkable just a week ago. With a balanced team effort featuring 8 points from Sierra Pedersen and 6 apiece from Rosemary Negus, Bailey Stevenson and Jeannie Jurasek, the Rams raced past the Matanuska Christian Eagles 40-15 in their first tournament game. The following night, the Rams used 12 points from Bailey Stevenson, 11 from Sierra Pedersen and 10 from Kat Wollett to enter the finals by virtue of a 47-24 win over Valley Christian.
The Ship was expected by many to be an entirely different affair. Kandace Carroll had single handedly marched the Fort Yukon Eagles to the Championship game with 71 points in a pair of victories over a strong Nenana Lynx team on Thursday and the Cornerstone Spartans on Friday. The general sentiment was that if the Rams could keep it close, they could be happy with a moral victory. However, the Rams 45-44 loss to the Eagles was far more than a moral victory. It was, perhaps, a program shifting effort. Sierra Pedersen electrified the crowd with a bevy of steals, and a career best 21 points. In the game’s most critical exchange, Pedersen caught Carroll, who was breaking alone to the basket, denied her shot, secured the rebound, and drew the fifth personal foul on Carroll. The gym went nuts. Kandace Carroll had fouled out after scoring 105 points in three games, leaving the Eagles with four players left on the floor to defend a four point lead with a minute and a half to play. To their credit, they would succeed, but by the narrowest of margins. Literally an inch, as Kat Wollett’s put back attempt to win it with 5 seconds left would roll over the front of the rim, side to side, before refusing to fall through the net. It was heartbreaking, but just two hours later, in the fashion of teenagers, who possess enormous recuperative powers, the Lady Rams beamed as they accepted their team and individual honors.
Five days later, the Lady Rams were ready to go again, but they’ll have to wait until Saturday, and hope that the weather improves.
The Gentleman Rams were also looking to avenge an earlier loss to the Viking Warriors. Tri-Valley earned a nine point victory over Susitna Valley in the semi-finals of the Nenana Invitational Tournament. The Viking Warriors would win the following night, and cut down a net as the 2010 N.I.T. Champions. The Viking Warriors are in the midst of an impressive season and gearing up to host the Central Interior Conference Tournament in two weeks. They will enter that regional tournament as the top seed. However the Rams are feeling it, coming off of a tournament championship of there own. We’ll never know what would have happened, but we do know that the weather, and Parks Highway road conditions took a good night of high school basketball away from all of us. But you’ve got to have perspective. Safety first!
While Susitna Valley’s Crowley Classic commanded all of TALKEETNA famous’ attention this past weekend, there was far more happening in the Parks Highway sporting world. In fact, anyone who attended the Crowley Classic on Saturday, probably noticed that there were cross country ski races of considerable size unwinding on the same campus. The Matanuska-Susitna Bourough Ski Championships were held at Susitna Valley High School on Saturday, February 13th. Laura Wright produced a story for KTNA Talkeetna, which is worth a look and listen:
Matanuska-Susitna Borough Ski Championships
In addition, Laura Wright took the following photographs and passed them along.
Top-Ten finishers (Boys)
(9 of the) Top-Ten finishers (Girls)
Tight race from start to finish
Kimberly Del Frate, Amanda Delfrate and Shannon Stough are pictured above. All ski for the Palmer High School team. Amanda Delfrate edged out her twin sister near the finish, with a time of 25:14.1 minutes.
Davis Dunlap of Palmer High School won the Boys’ race by two-thirds the length of his foot, or .4 seconds, if you prefer a more orthodox presentation of results. Side by side at the finish, but second to the line was Dunlap’s teammate Duney Strickland. Schyler Knopp of Colony High School finished just .5 seconds behind Strickland to take third. Laura Wright recommends an article on the Frontiersman website that has all of the results and the Boys’ photo finish. The link is below.
Frontiersman coverage of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Ski Championships
Thank you Laura for the photographs, information, and the story on KTNA. While ski obsessed at times, Laura has other hobbies, which include the production of a photo blog, Talking About Talkeetna. <-link
Elsewhere on the Parks Highway, at the Menard Memorial Ice Arena to be exact, the Greatland state high school hockey champion was crowned. Last week, TALKEETNA famous brought you some of the action and the final results from the Greatland Regional Qualifier. I would have loved to cover the Championships, but couldn’t bear the thought of missing the Crowley Classic. Thanks to Roben Shreeve, I was able to stay abreast of the action that was unfolding in Wasilla. Roben’s son Sterling Shreeve delivered a hat trick in Tri-Valley’s semi-final game against Delta Junction. Below are two links to the Anchorage Daily News’ coverage of the Greatland state hockey championships. If you read them in the order that they are presented, you can experience a little suspense as the semi-finals give way to the championship and third place games.
Semi-finals
Championship and third place game
On Saturday night, after the conclusion of the Crowley Classic, I happened to run into the Wasilla Lakes varsity boys basketball team on the way home from a tournament in Anderson. The Wasilla Lake Rams finished second in the tournament, losing to Kenny Lake in the final game.
The Wasilla Lake Rams have played twice in Susitna Valley this year, including the inaugural game in the new Susitna Valley High School gym. I learned many things as a high school basketball coach, one of which is that life on the road with high school athletes is a blast. The food can be less than exceptional, but the company is top notch. That said, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all high school coaches for their commitment and work. It is a labor of love, not prosperity.
Wasilla Lakes Rams
The Wasilla Lake Rams play at home this Friday night against the Tri-Valley Viking Warriors. If the Susitna Valley Rams have the night off, I might just get on the road and bring you that game via TALKEETNA famous. I’m a fan of both teams. No matter what may happen, TALKEETNA famous will cover the Wasilla Lake Rams and the Tri-Valley Viking Warriors at least two more times, as both teams will be competing in the Central Interior regional tournament, all of which will be covered by TALKEETNA famous. That regional tournment runs from March 3rd through March 6th, and will be held at Tri-Valley High School in Healy.
Uwe Hoffmann, the Athletic Director at Anderson School, kindly sent me the following results from Anderson’s basketball tournament this weekend.
Tok 41 Birchwood 27
Kenny Lake 54 Fairhill 40
Friday, February 12th
Tok 35 Kenny Lake 33
Birchwood 50 Fairhill 29
Kenny Lake 40 Birchwood 23
Saturday, February 13th:
Tok 38 Fairhill 22
Girls Champion: Tok
Second Place: Kenny Lake
Boys Bracket:
Thursday, February 11th:
Birchwood 40 Tok 38
Kenny Lake 54 Anderson 10
Friday, February 12th:
Wasilla Lake 49 Fairhill 23
Tok 57 Anderson 13
Kenny Lake 57 Birchwood 21
Wasilla Lake 63 Tok 45
Fairhill 33 Anderson 6
Birchwood 51 Tok 31
Birchwood 37 Fairhill 28
Kenny Lake 62 Wasilla Lake 47
Champion: Kenny Lake
Second Place: Wasilla Lake
Third Place: Birchwood
Anderson’s tournament is formally known as the Sportsmanship Tournament, so the tournament’s top honors are the Team Sportsmanship Awards. And the winners were…and still are…
Boys: Anderson
Girls: Fairhill
Anderson’s team is a co-ed team that played in the boys bracket. Cheers to the Anderson team and school for keeping the basketball program going through a period of limited participation, and congratulations to their team for the honor bestowed. Thank you, again, to Uwe Hoffmann for taking the time to email the above information, and for taking a sports rag called TALKEETNA famous seriously.
The Huslia Huslers girls team took second at this past weekend’s Nenana Invitational Tournament. It may have been the last time that TALKEETNA famous will cover Huslia this year. Many small schools have small rosters. On the final day of the N.I.T., there were two games in which, due to foul trouble, a small school’s team was forced to finish a game with only four players on the floor. When this happens, the complection of the game changes quickly.
The Tri-Valley girls team only suited five players in their game against Nenana. The Viking Warriors were controlling the game throughout. They had built a 28-20 lead with just over a minute to play in the third quarter. Then Hannah Keith fouled out. Nenana, playing with a five on four advantage, was able to outscore Tri-Valley 14-2 over the game’s last nine minutes to secure a 34-30 win.
In this past weekend’s example, Tri-Valley had control over their fate. It was foul trouble that was their undoing in the end. Nenana deserves credit for creating the foul trouble. However, last year, at the State Tournament, the Huslia girls team was playing a Port Lions team that only brought five players to the tournament. One of those five was injured in their first game. The following article from the Kodiak Daily Mirror tells the story of how the Huslia coach and the players responded to the situation that the injury created.
Read: Sportsmanship!
Huslia Huslers
