4A champs get past Moose

PALMER — Palmer head coach Jason Marvel likes to see his team face tough competition early in the season.

Well, the competition in Palmer’s last two games has been about as tough as it gets — back-to-back outings against defending state champions.

Dimond, the reigning kings of the 4A level, held on to beat Palmer 56-45 Saturday night at Palmer High School in Palmer’s first trip to the court since falling to defending 3A state champion Monroe Catholic in the title game of the Clark Cochrane Classic late last month in Ketchikan.

“I think this is going to make our break us,” Marvel said of suffering tough losses to defending champs in consecutive games. “I want to believe my guys will come back on Monday and be ticked off by this loss. I hope that’s what they do. I think that’s the team I’ve got. I think they want to get better.”

After a close first half, Dimond held Palmer to only 13 points and three total field goals during the final two quarters.

“They did a nice job of taking us out of everything,” Marvel said. “We didn’t handle our adversity in the second half like we did in the first half.”

Palmer, powered by a 19-point second quarter, took a 32-30 lead into the break. But Dimond used a run in the third quarter to take the lead. Neither team led by more than six points through more than three quarters, but the Lynx used key three-pointers by Isaiah Pili and Damon Cikanek to build a double-digit advantage in the fourth.

Senior Connor Looney led the Moose with a game-high15 points in the loss, but scored 11 of those 15 during the final four minutes of the first half. Dimond held Looney, Palmer’s leading scorer, to just a pair of free throws until Looney went to the basket with 3:46 left in the second quarter. Looney hit five shots during the final 3:46 of the half.

Hayden Niekamp also scored four of his seven points during that key second quarter for the Moose.

“I think we were handling the pressure, running our stuff,” Marvel of his team’s success during the second quarter.

Brian Selmer added nine for Palmer.

Cikanek led Dimond with 11 and Pili added 10.

Dimond improved to 5-0 and Palmer fell to 5-4.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and find him by searching Valley Sports Huddle on Facebook.

Dimond 56, Palmer 45

Saturday, Palmer High School

Dimond 14-16-12-14—56

Palmer 13-19-6-7—45

Dimond (56) — E. Pili 2 2-2 6, Lauwers 3 0-1 7, Torrance 4 0-0 8, Cikanek 3 2-2 11, Pangalinean 2 1-2 6, Liaga 4 0-0 8, I. Pili 4 0-0 10; Totals: 22 5-7 56.

Palmer (45) — Ramouth 1 1-2 4, Looney 5 5-10 15, Mayer 2 0-0 4, Christiansen 2 0-0 4, Nisbett 0 2-2 2, Selmer 4 1-1 9, Niekamp 3 1-2 7; Totals: 17 10-17 45.