‘D’-lightful upset

PALMER — It took one of Palmer’s youngest players to help end one of its oldest droughts.

Palmer sophomore Kendal Venzke’s play on the defensive side of the floor helped the Moose earn a 37-30 win over the Wasilla Warriors at Palmer High School on Thursday.

The Venzke-led defense held Wasilla all-state guard Jenna Johnson to only three total field goals and the Warriors — a team that the Moose had not beaten in nearly a decade — to just eight buckets in the game.

“She was definitely a huge part of our win,” Palmer senior Mikaela Bolling said of the underclassman.

Bolling is normally Palmer’s defensive leader, but after she was tagged with two early fouls in the first quarter, Palmer head coach Paul Reid had to look to other options to stop Johnson, a player who had averaged nearly 27 points a contest in her previous three games.

“It was a blessing in disguise,” Reid said. “Mikaela picked up her second foul and we put Kendal in.

“Kendal’s a very, very strong, physical, athletic kid,” Reid said. “Mikaela’s our defensive stopper, but it’s nice to see we have another player who can step up and take that role.”

Despite scoring a game-high 15 points, the all-state guard — who was blanketed by Bolling or Venzke or both throughout the game — was held to just three buckets from the floor.

Wasilla was held to just eight total field goals, and scored a dozen of its 30 points from the free throw line.

“The funny thing is, we’ve been focusing so much on running a patient offense, taking care of the ball on offense, I never really gave them any props about their defense until just now in the locker room” Reid said shortly after the win. “We work on defense every day, and that’s what’s more ingrained into us. They had a hard time scoring against us. Lately, a lot of team have had a hard time scoring against us.”

Senior Kelsey Campbell led the Moose with 10 points in the win and hit a pair of three-pointers in the victory. Bolling, Venzke and junior Jaimi Cox added six each.

While Palmer didn’t exactly score at a tremendous rate either, Reid was happy with the patient approach the Moose brought to the offensive side of the floor.

“It wasn’t necessarily a time of possession,” Reid said referring to the total slow down approach the Moose used against the defending state champion Colony Knights earlier in the year. “It was to take a little bit of what we did against Colony and apply it here until we get good open looks. I thought we did a pretty good job of that.”

Palmer used that patient approach to build a six-point lead in the first period and a seven-point halftime advantage. The Moose led by as many as 10 in the third. Bolling credited teamwork on offense.

“We had a lot more chemistry than any of our other games,” Bolling said.

Campbell hit both of her three-pointers in the third quarter. She drained her first early in the third, giving the Moose the 10-point lead, and after Johnson found sophomore center Kelsey Cottle inside for an easy bucket to make it a two-possesion game, Campbell hit another long three in the final seconds of the frame to stretch that lead back to seven.

Johnson scored 11 of her 15 points in the second half to keep the Warriors close. She was 7-of-9 from the free throw line during the final 16 minutes.

“Wasilla brought a ton of energy late in the third and they chipped back in,” Reid said.

Johnson was also nailed with her fourth foul of the game with six minutes to play in the fourth.

“That was big,” Reid said. “She kind of had to back off with her defensive tenacity, which is always present. That was defiantly helpful.”

Contact Frontiersman Sports Editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.

Palmer 37, Wasilla 30

Tuesday, Palmer High School

Wasilla 6-6-8-9—30

Palmer 12-7-9-9—37

Wasilla (30) — Apangolook 1 0-0 2, Brown 1 0-2 3, Johnson 3 8-11 15, Cottle 3 4-9 10; Totals: 8 12-24 30

Palmer (37) — Cox 3 0-0 6, Campbell 3 2-5 10, Mangelsdorf 1 3-6 5, Bolling 3 0-1 6, Zimmer 1 4-4 6, Venzke 2 0-0 4; Totals: 13 9-16 37.

Three-point field goals: Wasilla 2 (Johnson, Brown 1); Palemr 2 (Campbell 2); Total fouls: Wasilla 13, Palmer 17.