Kenai boys spoil hopes of all-Valley boys' final

PALMER — An unwelcome guest up from the Kenai Peninsula crashed the Valley's Northern Lights Conference party Friday night, dancing into the school’s first state tournament appearance in six years.

Kenai Central avenged a 29-point loss to Wasilla less than a month ago with a 12-point win over the Warriors in their own back yard, setting up a date with Colony in the boys' final Saturday.

Kenai coach Jim Beeson said his team's previous meeting with the Warriors may have actually helped the Kardinals in Friday's 59-47 win.

“I told them after that game I would rather lose by 30 than by one or two,” Beeson said.

Though the Kardinals entered the NLC tournament as the No. 1 seed from the South Division, Beeson said he felt like most people — the Warriors included — would take Kenai for granted in the semifinals against the defending NLC and state champions.

“The only people expecting us to give them a basketball game was us,” he said.

Wasilla also knocked Kenai into the consolation round last season, and early in Friday's game it looked like the Warriors would again chase the Kardinals out of the winner’s bracket. Wasilla led by as many as eight points in the first quarter, eventually taking a 16-10 lead after the first eight minutes of the game.

But unlike Wasilla's 89-60 thrashing earlier this season, the Warriors weren’t red-hot from the floor Friday night. Instead of raining jump shots down on the helpless Kardinals, Wasilla more often than not found the iron unkind, shooting just 37 percent for the game.

Still hanging around after one quarter, the Kardinals started to take over the second. Kenai finished the first half on an 18-8 run, capped by a Nate Saltzgiver three-pointer that gave the Kardinals a one-point half-time lead. Cory Toombs sparked Kenai with a trio of three-pointers in the quarter. Kenai hit six threes in the game, including big shots from downtown by Daniel Gustkey and Nate Byrd.

As the momentum began to turn, Wasilla collapsed. Kenai opened up the third quarter like they'd ended the second, and the Warriors were unable to answer. Instead, Wasilla began forcing shots from the perimeter and making one-on-one drives to the basket that often resulted in turnovers or charging calls.

Wasilla coach Ryan Engebretsen said it was easy to see the difference between the two Wasilla-Kenai games this season.

“(In the first game) we shot 63 percent, our guys shared the ball, we stayed strong emotionally and mentally,” he said. “We weren't shooting the ball well today and weren't tough enough to handle it.”

Toombs led Kenai with 19 points and 11 rebounds, the latter stat perhaps more important for an undersized Kenai team that has struggled on the boards this year.

“We just watched some film today and realized we have to box out if we want to win,” Toombs said.

Byrd added 15 points for the Kardinals, displaying rare ball-handing and shooting abilities for a big man. At 6-foot-2, Byrd is one of Kenai's tallest players, yet he spent most of the evening breaking down defenders and launching midrange pull-up jumpers.

“He's such a match-up problem for people because he can shoot the basketball,” Beeson said.

The Warriors lost the team's leading scorer, Dexter Pearce, early in the fourth quarter when the senior guard was whistled for his fifth foul. Pearce, who scored 30 against Kenai the first time around, picked up a technical foul on his way off the floor for criticizing the referees. Less than a minute later, Tyler Johannes, who led Wasilla with 10 points Friday, got his fifth foul, leaving Wasilla without two starters and trailing by double digits late in the game.

Shortly afterward, Engebretsen got a technical of his own, effectively signaling the game's end.

“We just didn't play basketball today,” the first-year Wasilla head coach said.

Kenai’s win was a big one both for the Southern Division (which hasn’t had a NLC tournament winner since 1993) and history buffs, as the Kardinals’ last NLC semifinals victory came over Colony in 2002 when the Knights were coached by Engebretsen’s older brother, Phil.

The younger Engebretsen made no excuses for Friday’s loss, which sent Wasilla into the consolation round needing a pair of wins Saturday to return to the state tournament.

“They were the better team tonight. That's my only thought, they were the better team,” he said.

Free throw shooting was the most glaring difference in the game. While Kenai shot 40 percent from the field and made the same amount of field goals as Wasilla, the Kardinals got to the line 22 times — compared to just five for the Warriors. Kenai made 15 of those foul shots, hitting 13 in the second half alone.

Cory Toombs said Kenai’s players never lost confidence in themselves, even after struggling through a late-season swoon that began with the Wasilla loss and continued with a defeat to SoHi in the final conference game of the year.

“We just know we can rely on our teammates to make big shots,” Toombs said. “Everyone can shoot.”

The win gave Kenai's large senior class their first taste of victory over the Warriors, a team Kenai has had trouble with against in recent years. It also spoiled what could have been a Colony-Wasilla final in both the boys’ and girls’ brackets and put the Kardinals in the big dance for the first time since 2002 — a fact Kenai players and fans celebrated long after the final whistle had blown at Palmer Friday night.

Listening in on Cory Toombs’ post-game media interview, senior Nate Byrd said he had just one thing to add to his teammate’s statement.

“We’re going to state!”

KARDINALS 59, WARRIORS 47

NLC semifinals

Friday, Palmer High School

Kenai 10 18 18 13 — 59

Wasilla 16 11 8 12 — 47

KENAI (59) — Saltzgiver 1 6-6 9, Byrd 6 2-4 15, Toombs 6 4-8 19, Beeson 2 0-0 4, Lazaro 1 0-0 2, Gustkey 3 3-4 10. Totals: 19 15-22 59.

WASILLA (47) — Gray 1 0-0 2, Kroon 0 2-2 2, Sliwa 2 0-0 5, LaVern 4 0-0 9, Pearce 1 3-3 5, Johannes 5 0-0 10, Flowers 3 0-0 7, Knowles 1 0-0 2. Totals: 19 5-5 47.

Three-point field goals — Kenai 6 (Toombs 3, Saltzgiver, Byrd, Gustkey), Wasilla 4 (LaVern, Pearce, Flowers, Green). Total fouls — Kenai 12, Wasilla 19. Technical fouls — Wasilla 2 (Pearce, Coach Engebretsen). Fouled out — Johannes, Pearce, Byrd.