Houston girls nearly upset top-ranked Homer

ANCHORAGE — The Homer girls had to do it the hard way, but they ultimately earned what they came for.

The Mariners survived a scare in Friday's semifinal contest at the Southcentral Conference tournament to claim a dramatic 32-29 victory over the stubborn Houston Hawks at Grace Christian High School.

With a state tournament spot effectively wrapped up due to their state-leading Winning Percentage Index (WPI) among 3A girls teams, the Mariners did not necessarily have to beat Houston, but the win was nevertheless important to keep the momentum rolling.

"It was definitely tense at the end," said Homer senior Madison Akers, who embraced her teammates in an emotional hug after the final buzzer. "We've come so far from the beginning of the season, and we wanted to keep it going. We're all one big family."

Akers led Homer with 13 points, and capped her day with the go-ahead layup with 46 seconds left, which put the Mariners up 30-29 at the time. Once they were in the lead again, the Mariners forced two crucial turnovers in the final 24 seconds to seal the win.

"This was good for us," said a relieved Homer coach Chad Felice. "I told them in the last huddle there that this is what we do, it starts on defense."

The win was the 18th straight for Homer, which hasn't lost since mid-January and will face host team Grace Christian in Saturday's championship tilt at 5:15 p.m. The Grizzlies beat ACS in Friday's other semifinal 45-30.

Against Grace this year, Homer recorded a 46-35 win at home and a narrow 35-34 win on the road.

Kimberly Quincy led Houston by hitting 7-of-10 from the foul line and finishing with 13 points. Overall, the Hawks converted 9 of 16 from the free throw line, and went 5 for 6 in the fourth quarter.

"Houston's a really physical team, and the mentality for us was to get back on defense as soon as we could," Akers said. "Beating a team three times is hard, and we saw it."

Although they were ranked as the No. 5 seed, the Hawks were looked at by rival teams as a challenging matchup, and Houston coach Colton Conner said Thursday's quarterfinal win over Nikiski and Friday's test against Homer proved their mettle.

"We went in with a game plan to keep the score as low as possible, contain Madison at the post and (Kayla) Stafford at the perimeter, and the girls played their hearts out doing that," Conner said. "Defensively, we played our best game."

Early on, shots were falling for Homer. Aurora Waclawski knocked down a pair of 3-pointers to help the Mariners stake out a 13-2 lead after six minutes were up. Stafford opened the scoring with a triple of her own for Homer, and the defense forced Houston into three early turnovers as well.

However, the Hawks showed off their long range game as well with triples from Makayla Moore and Kaila Wilkerson, which closed Houston's deficit to 13-8 by the end of the quarter. Moore buried another trey early in the second frame to knock the lead down to two points.

Homer led 19-15 at the halftime break, but Houston put up a charge in the third quarter with gritty defensive play that frustrated Homer, leaving the Mariners with a scant five points in the frame. A corner triple by Aspen Ruth with 3:30 to play in the quarter gave Houston its first lead of the day at 22-21. A late bucket by Waclawski put Homer back on top 24-22 by the end of the period.

As the teams headed into the fourth quarter, Homer began rebounding better, but the Hawks took the lead again with 1:47 to play on a jumpshot by Wilkerson. 17 seconds later, Akers grabbed the lead back with a jumper from the free throw line, putting Homer up 28-27.

After a Houston turnover, an empty possession by Homer ended in a traveling call on Akers, and a crosscourt inbounds pass by Houston resulted in another Homer foul, putting Quincy on the charity stripe.

Quincy hit both shots to give Houston a 29-28 lead, but it didn't last long. The Mariners had the ball knocked out of bounds on the next possession, and on the ensuing inbounds pass, Akers collected the ball and laid it in for the 30-29 lead.

From there, the Mariners worked hard in pressing the Hawks, which helped force a Houston turnover with 24 seconds left. The sequence forced Houston to start fouling, and Waclawski helped build the lead to three points on a pair of clutch free throws with 16 ticks on the board.

"Aurora has ice in her veins," Felice said. "It doesn't affect her, she just knocks them down."

From there, the Mariners held strong to clinch the win after a full court shot by Houston bounced off the rim at the buzzer.

"This was a good win for us," Felice said. "Last week's (44-38) win over ACS was good, but this one was big to put us in state."

Akers said with the Mariners' second consecutive state berth locked up for certain, she plans on heading to the big dance with her teammates with one goal in mind.

"I want to end my high school career with three wins," she said.