Home away from home

WASILLA — As competitive as the Northern Lights Conference Championships are expected to be, some home cooking might prove to be the difference.

Wasilla head coach Ryan Engebretsen is taking his Warriors boys team back to his hometown, Homer, for the 2011 NLC tournament, which starts Thursday at Homer High School.

And the former Homer High basketball standout can’t deny that it would be nice to celebrate a championship in his old gym.

“I’m not going to lie. It’d be pretty sweet to go down there and win one in my hometown,” said Engebretsen, who played in an NLC tourney inside the Homer High gym as a senior with the Mariners.

Regardless, with the Engebretsen family’s roots still firmly planted in Homer, the town will be the Warriors’ home away from home for the long weekend.

“We’re going to enjoy staying at my parents’ place while we’re down there. It’ll be nice and quiet and away from everything. We’ll let them take care of us while we’re down there,” Engebretsen said. “We’ll go to my hometown, and hopefully the plan is to go down there and take care of business and get another region title.”

Wasilla, the two-time defending NLC champs and top seed from the NLC north, opens tourney play Thursday at 1:15 p.m. against Skyview, the bottom seed from the South Division. The Warriors (9-1) scored a comfortable 77-33 win over Skyview to close the NLC regular season last Saturday. After that win, Engebretsen said regardless of opponent, Wasilla has to be prepare to play its brand of basketball.

“Do what we need to do, and we’ll take care of business,” Engebretsen said. “Play the game we’re capable of playing. We have to play Wasilla basketball against whoever you’re playing.”

A win over Skyview puts Wasilla in the semifinals against Colony or Soldotna. Regardless of opponent, Engebretsen said he expects the NLC semifinal round to be its typical tough self.

“Four teams show up in the semis always expecting to battle it out and get a win,” Engebretsen said. “I’ve seen a lot of teams have to grind it out and get a win.”

The Colony Knights (6-4) could find themselves in arguably the most competitive game of the first round, meeting Soldotna Thursday morning at 9:45. Soldotna (5-5) suffered a 69-55 loss to Kenai in its regular-season finale last Saturday, a defeat that landed the Stars in the South Division’s No. 2 seed.

“We kind of knew a week ago it would come down to that Soldotna-Kenai game,” Colony head coach said about his team’s first-round matchup. “It’s going to be a tough match.”

Colony dropped four NLC losses this season, and Soldotna was the only South Division team to beat the Knights. Soldotna used a flood of three-pointers to beat the Knights during the first go-around. Colony led at the half, but Soldotna drained seven three-pointers in the second half.

“I’ve watched the tape three times,” Berg said. “They blew it open in the third with really good shooting.”

Berg said Soldotna certainly shot the lights out, but Colony’s eight turnovers in the third also contributed to the SoHi run.

“They did a good job of guarding us,” Berg said. “We’ve got to be a little more patient offensivley.”

Palmer (8-2) opens its tournament Thursday’s nightcap, facing host Homer (2-8) Thursday at 8:15 p.m. Even though Homer is a No. 3 seed with only two regular-season conference teams, Palmer head coach Jason Marvel said you can’t look past the host team in the conference tourney.

“You can’t overlook any team, it’s regions,” Marvel said. “Homer has a nice, big kid. The crowd will obviously be into it. They’re upset-minded. It’s going to be tough.”

The Moose have won eight straight in conference play, a stretch capped by their 50-49 win over top-ranked Wasilla last week.

“I think we’re peaking at the right time,” Marvel said. “We’re playing good basketball right now. I like where we’re at.”

Palmer will play either Kenai (7-3) or Kodiak (1-9) during the second day of the tournament.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com. For updates throughout the NLC Championships, see twitter.com/matsu_sports.