Beat up Moose to get a break

WASILLA — The Palmer Moose are a team more than ready for a break.

After spending the last three weekends in Phoenix, Ariz., Kodiak and Anchorage, the Moose will finally have the weekend off.

“We’ve played a lot of games, traveled a lot of miles,” Palmer head coach Greg Fullmer said after Palmer’s loss to Valley-rival Wasilla on Wednesday.

From Jan. 2 through Wednesday, Palmer had played in seven tournament games and four Northern Lights Conference contests during a 21-day stretch.

The Moose started with four games at the Phoenix Union High School Tournament at Gilbert High School in Mesa, Ariz., early in the month. The following weekend Palmer traveled to Kodiak for its first two NLC games of the season. Last week, the Moose started by hosting Colony on a Tuesday and then hit the three-day Rock Classic at South Anchorage High School just 48 hours later.

Palmer has also had to deal with injury during the busy stretch of games. Having already lost senior center Mitch Bergeron to a knee injury earlier, senior guard T.J. Fullmer suffered a wrist injury early during a loss to Colony.

“We thought he broke it,” Greg Fullmer said of his son’s injury. “But it’s not broken.”

But with injury comes the opportunity for others to step into a more productive role, and the Palmer head coach has seen three players — junior forward Bryce Jacobson, senior guard Jake Parisien and senior guard Justin Draughon — do just that.

“They’ve really helped us,” Fullmer said.

Palmer was without T.J. Fullmer, the top returning scorer from last year, for the first two days of the Rock Classic, but the Moose were able to score consecutive wins over Sitka and Homer. Those wins were thanks in part to the added scoring punch of Parisien and Draughon.

In Palmer’s first game of the Rock Classic, Parisien scored seven of his 10 points in overtime, and hit a late three-pointer to secure his team a 51-47 win over Sitka.

“He has a nice touch on the ball,” Fullmer said of Parisien. “We want him to shoot more.”

Jacobson scored a game-high 19 in the win over the Wolves. Jacobson, who also scored 13 in the loss to Warriors, has been particularly important for Palmer inside, especially with the loss of Bergeron.

“Bryce is a coach’s dream,” Fullmer said. “He doesn’t care if he gets the credit, he doesn’t care if he scores. He just plays hard all the time. If you had 12 of him, you’d have a really good basketball team.”

Draughon, also a standout on the Palmer football team, has added quickness and a quality three-point shot.

“He’s the quickest kid on the floor,” Fullmer said.

Palmer will have about a week to recooperate. The Moose are off until Thursday, when they travel to Anchorage to face the Anchorage Christian School Lions.

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