Palmer girls cruise past Bartlett to kick off tourney

ANCHORAGE — Coming off a stretch that included a Northern Lights Conference win and three tough conference losses in nine days, the Palmer Moose were looking for a way to get back on track. Palmer may have found it with a 54-28 win over the Bartlett Golden Bears during the first day of the East T-Bird Classic at East Anchorage High School.

“We’ve played some tough games,” Palmer head coach Paul Reid said. “We’re putting the pieces back together.”

Senior Kendal Venzke scored a game-high 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting and sophomore Taylor Blake added 16 on 7-of-10 shooting in the win.

“It was a breakout game for a couple of the players,” Reid said. “A lot of Kendal’s came off hard penetration. She was attacking the basket really well. Taylor definitely hit some perimeter shots.”

Alex Van Hoomissen added six for the Moose, who will play West Anchorage in today’s semifinal round.

Palmer held a 20-13 lead at the half, but broke the game open with 35 second-half points.

“They switched to a zone, and we moved the ball well and go some really good looks,” Reid said.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/matsu_sports.

Palmer 54, Bartlett 28

East T-Bird Classic

Thursday, Anchorage

Palmer 9-11-15-20—54

Bartlett 4-9-9-6—28

Palmer (54) — VanHoomissen 3 0-0 6, Venzke 7 3-3 17, Houchen 2 0-0 4, Jensen 1 0-0 2, Koehn 1 0-0 2, Blake 7 1-1 16, LaMere 1 1-3 3, Brandenburg 1 2-2 4; Totals: 23 7-10 54.

Bartlett (28) — Little 5 1-5 11, Calloway 1 0-0 2, Brit 5 0-0 10, Worth 1 0-0 2, Pollard 1 0-0 3; Totals: 13-50 1-8 28.

Three-point field goals: Palmer 1 (Blake 1), Bartlett 1 (Polalrd); Total fouls: Palmer 12, Bartlett 10.