Houston girls win Nikiski tourney

NIKISKI — The Nikiski boys and girls basketball teams came within seconds Saturday of sweeping their own Nikiski Tip-Off tournament for the first time in 17 years, but the Houston Hawks had other ideas.

The Nikiski boys cruised to their first Tip-Off tournament championship in 11 years with a 62-39 win over Houston, while the Nikiski girls were left to ponder what could have been after a late bucket and a foul shot pushed Houston to a thrilling 36-35 victory in the final seconds.

In the boys game, the Bulldogs secured their first tourney title since 2004 with a late surge in the third and fourth quarters, which capped off a 3-0 weekend record and denied the Hawks their fifth tournament win in six years. Coach Reid Kornstad — who was a part of that most recent Nikiski team that won it’s home tournament — still fondly recalls that triumph.

“I almost remember that,” joked Kornstad. “That was a great bunch of guys 11 years ago, they were a special group.”

Kornstad said this year’s team has steadily become a force that does not back down when the pressure is on, and Saturday’s performance indicated what he saw in recent practices.

“Whenever the other team fights back and goes on a run, we started fighting back against their run and didn’t allow them to catch back up,” Kornstad said. “It shows a lot of growth in the mental toughness area.”

Luke Johnson and Hunter Holloway combined for 30 points, as well as 10-for-12 shooting from the free throw line. Johnson scored a game-high 16 points and Holloway chipped in 14. Houston’s Ben Bitler scored all of his team-high 14 points in the first three quarters, while teammate Kade Taylor was a perfect 10-for-10 from the charity line to end with 13 points. The Hawks went 20-for-29 overall from the free throw line.

Leading 26-15 at halftime, Nikiski went shot-for-shot with Houston in the third quarter, getting 16 points from seven different players to stake out a 42-28 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

That’s where the Bulldogs really began to take off. Sullivan Jackson nailed a triple in the opening minute of the fourth to spark a 12-point unanswered run that saw Nikiski open up a 54-28 lead with 4:10 remaining in the game.

“The guys have been starting to work in practice on things that have cost us wins about the last three or four weeks,” Kornstad said. “We’re starting to see the fruits of that now. I’m happy for them.”

Johnson and Nathan Carstens were named to the All-Tournament boys team. Dillingham’s Kenneth Savo was named the boys MVP.

Earlier in the day, the Nikiski girls lost a heartbreaker.

The Bulldogs — looking for their first Tip-Off title since 2008 — jumped out to an early lead and looked to on path to deliver a blowout win to the home fans, holding the Hawks to only two field goals in the first half and leading by as much as 21-10 early in the third quarter.

However, Houston coach Colton Connor decided to change things up and implement a new offensive scheme.

“We set up this offense this week, specifically for this tournament, and I waited until the second half,” Connor said. “It’s a dribble drive attack, and they were getting defenders to make mistakes.

“I was a little shaky on it because we didn’t get a lot of practice with it.”

After a 3-pointer from Nikiski senior Rachel Thompson left Houston trailing by 11 after the halftime break, Houston began to get to the basket much more effectively than they had been all game, and the comeback was on.

Houston scored 14 unanswered points to take a 24-21 lead with 7:01 to go in the fourth quarter. From there, the two teams swapped the lead five more times before the grand finale.

Nikiski junior Alison Litke delivered three clutch buckets down the stretch to keep the Bulldogs out front, and a free throw from Thompson with 16 seconds left had Nikiski leading 35-33.

However, Houston junior Kimberly Quincy delivered the crushing blow to Nikiski in the final seconds of the game. Quincy managed to break free from her defender with a well-timed screen from a teammate, receive the inbound pass under the bucket and score the tying layup with 4.4 seconds on the clock, getting fouled in the process.

“I was just thinking, we need to get this, get a good pass, and it was perfect,” said an excited Quincy after the game. “It was so insane!”

Quincy sunk the go-ahead free throw, then joined her teammates in attempting to keep Nikiski from scoring in the final four seconds of the game. Thompson’s half-court shot at the buzzer fell short.

“It hit the rim and kind of went in and I was like, ‘go in!’,” Quincy said. “I heard the foul (whistle), and the whole time before I shot that free throw I said, ‘guys, we need to get back on defense!’.”

Quincy scored 14 of her game-high 20 points in the second half to lead Houston to the tournament title after going 3-0 on the weekend.

Thompson led the Bulldogs with 17 points and was named tournament girls MVP. Litke chipped in nine and was named to the girls All-Tournament team. Nikiski went 2-1 on the weekend.

“After the first half, if you would’ve told me we were gonna be in it, I would’ve said it was going to be a battle,” Connor said. “This girls team, I’ve never coached anyone like them. They will work buzzer to buzzer, and they do things right.”

26th Annual Nikiski Tip-Off tournament results

BOYS

All-Tournament team — Evan Reich, Kotzebue; Bish Gallahorn, Kotzebue; Nathan Carstens, Nikiski; Luke Johnson, Nikiski; Caden Smeaton, Dillingham. MVP — Kenneth Savo, Dillingham.

Free throw champ — Cole Schlagel, Dillingham (20 shots made).

3-point champ — Kenneth Savo, Dillingham (13 shots).

GIRLS

All-Tournament team — Alison Litke, Nikiski; Kimberly Quincy, Houston; Aspen Ruth, Houston; Sydney Dray, Dillingham; Paeton Schaeffer, Kotzebue. MVP — Rachel Thompson, Nikiski.

Free throw champ — Arianne Parrish, Nikiski (18 shots).

3-point champ — Rachel Thompson, Nikiski (15 shots).

Saturday girls

Hawks 36, Bulldogs 35

Houston 6 2 14 14 —36

Nikiski 9 9 3 14 —35

HOUSTON (36) — May-Thomas 1 0-0 2, Bean 0 0-0 0, Ruth 3 1-1 7, M. Moore 0 2-2 2, Apangalook 0 0-1 0, Wilkerson 1 0-0 2, Quincy 7 6-7 20, Kapuneai 0 0-2 0, Leonard 0 3-4 3. Totals — 12 12-17 36.

NIKISKI (35) — Parrish 2 0-0 4, Riddall 0 0-0 0, Vollertson 0 0-0 0, Pitt 0 1-2 1, Litke 4 0-0 9, Kornstad 0 0-0 0, Thompson 5 4-5 17, Litzen 2 0-0 4. Totals — 13 5-7 35.

3-point goals — Nikiski 4 (Thompon 3, Litke). Team fouls — Houston 13, Nikiski 14. Fouled out — none.

Saturday boys

Bulldogs 62, Hawks 39

Nikiski 15 11 16 20 —62

Houston 8 7 13 11 —39

NIKISKI (62) — Anderson 3 0-1 6, Johnson 5 6-8 16, Holloway 5 4-4 14, Malston 3 0-0 7, Tauriainen 1 0-0 2, N. Carstens 3 0-1 6, Dohse 0 0-0 0, Jackson 2 0-0 5, Pamplin 2 0-0 4, B. Carstens 1 0-0 2. Totals 25 10-14 62.

HOUSTON (39) — Taylor 1 10-10 13, Ruta 0 1-2 1, Wilson 0 0-0 0, Saechao 1 1-2 3, Graham 1 0-0 2, Dika 0 0-0 0, Bitler 4 6-10 14, Lovelace 2 0-3 4. Totals 9 20-29 39.

3-point goals — Nikiski 2 (Jackson, Malston); Houston 1 (Taylor).