WASILLA — Jason Marvel had an unfamiliar feeling in a very familiar place Wednesday evening.

That place — the Wasilla High School gymnasium — is somewhere he’s been hundreds of times before. But on Wednesday, as the Wasilla Warriors prepared to host the Palmer Moose in the Northern Lights Conference season opener for both teams, Marvel didn’t take the short walk from the Wasilla locker room to the home team’s bench.

Instead, Marvel — the former Warrior mentor who guided Wasilla to its first 4A state title in 2007 and, more recently, grabbed the reigns of the Palmer program in the offseason — took the long stroll across the hardwood to the visitor’s seats.

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“It was humbling,” Marvel said. “I haven’t been in that gym for a while.”

But as it turned out, there was little room for nostalgia.

Wasilla used a 13-point run off the opening tip to help score a 65-46 win over the Moose.

“I told the boys it would be an emotional game,” Marvel said. “We had to ride the wave out, settle into our stuff and go play. I didn’t think it would take a whole quarter.”

Wasilla stormed out to the 13-point lead while holding the scoreless until Palmer senior Mitch Swetzof flipped in a lay-up off his finger tips with 3 minutes and 11 seconds remaining in the first quarter. But the Warriors had a quick answer as Chris Edwards popped in a 20-footer on Wasilla’s ensuing possession.

Wasilla closed the first eight minutes with the 20-5 advantage.

“We were definitely getting after it,” Wasilla head coach Ryan Engebretsen said.

Senior Adrese LaVern scored a game-high 20 points in the win to help the Warriors improve to 4-1 overall and 1-0 in NLC play.

Edwards, a West Anchorage transfer, added 15 in the victory.

Engebretsen said he’s been pleased with the play of its team during the early season. The Warriors opened its schedule with four games at the Merv Lopes Holiday Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii. Wasilla scored three wins in the tourney, including a 69-49 victory over Kaneohe (Hawaii) in the consolation championship.

“It was a good tournament to go to,” Engebretsen said. “It was a good experience for the kids.”

Wasilla opened the tourney with a 47-41 loss to Punahoe (Hawaii), and sandwiched a pair of wins over Kaneohe with a 72-48 win over Hilo (Hawaii).

Ironically, Punahoe is alma mater of President-elect Barack Obama, and Wasilla, of course, is the alma mater of Gov. Sarah Palin, a candidate for vice president during the 2008 Presidential election.

“He was actually supposed to be there,” Engebretsen said. “There was a bunch of media there.”

While the Warriors are off to a solid start, Palmer is still searching for its first win of the Marvel era.

The Moose have battled through an ambitious early-season schedule, with losses to Dimond, West Anchorage, Juneau and now Wasilla. The 0-5 start is tough to handle, but Marvel hopes the early challenges will benefit his team later in the season.

“I think it will payoff in the long run,” Marvel said.

Despite giving up the early lead in the first, Marvel was proud of the way his team worked its way back into the contest. Palmer cut Wasilla’s lead to six in the second half, and could have trailed by only four.

“It’s tough when you’re playing catch-up,” Marvel said. “Our defense would stop them, and we’d come down and turn it over.”

Swetzof led the Moose with 11 points in the game. Shaq Odom and Sean Niekamp each contributed 10.

Jake Hillis added a team-high 10 rebounds to his eight points.

Wasilla will continue NLC play with a two-day stay in Kodiak over the weekend. Palmer is preparing for nonconference contests against Service and Chugiak.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.