Palmer loses first home game of 2020

PALMER — The Palmer Moose basketball team suffered a 54-58 loss to the Thunder Mountain Falcons on Friday night at Palmer High School. Following a back and forth first half, the Falcons took over behind the dominant play of Bryson Echiverri and Brady Carandang, who each scored 23 points in the win. Thunder Mountain had already opened their season with tournament play in Hawaii, but the Moose in defeat, making a comeback effort late in the fourth quarter that fell short.

“They’ve got some good players and if you give them an inch they’re going to make shots,” said Palmer coach Jeremy Arnhart.

Thunder Mountain opened the game stifling the Palmer offense with a zone press that they played nearly full court, turning their defense into offense. While Palmer set up in methodical half-court set plays, the Falcons’ Echiverri made a habit of attacking the rim as quick as his team had secured the rebound on defense.

Thunder Mountain took the early 6-0 lead, but Shea Halbert helped ignite the crowd and get the Moose back within striking distance. Halbert hit the first field goal for the Moose with a three pointer from the right wing late in the first quarter. Just as the second quarter was starting, Halbert hit an even deeper three-pointer from the right wing sending the home crowd into a frenzy and cutting the Falcon lead to just 1. Under a minute later, senior guard Lavar Marshall was fouled driving to the basket and gave Palmer the 21-19 lead.

“We need him because he will stretch the defense out a little bit because he’s such a good shooter,” said Arnhart of Halbert.

Senior guard Dae Osiensky hit one of his two three-pointers midway through the second quarter to ignite a strong finish to the first half for the Moose. Osiensky’s bomb was followed by a Carson Helm post maneuver and an Amiqaq MacLean free throw before the end of the first half.

“We don’t play anybody that’s just cupcakes,” Arnhart said. “They’re all going to be good, so if we’re not consistently good it’s going to be hard for us to win games, but I think we have the pieces we just got to tweak a couple things and we’re going to be fine but we’ve all got to play pretty well.”

Palmer held the Falcons to eight second quarter points and led 29-27 at half but could not generate offense against Thunder Mountain in the third quarter, scoring just eight points. Carandang came out of the locker room hot, hitting a pair of 3-pointers to start the half and allowing Echiverri to work around the Moose defense for a series of increasingly difficult running layups, exploiting Palmer foul trouble late in the game and leading by nine headed into the fourth quarter.

“Thankfully, Bryce ended up taking care of the ball pretty well and Brady knocks down a couple shots and that kind of helps build the momentum but Palmer, they stuck around the whole time and it’s one of those things we kept wanting to push harder but they stuck right there so that’s a good sign of a team to come,” said Thunder Mountain Coach John Blasco.

Carandang ended the game with four three-pointers made. Echiverri opted to use his speed and quick handles to maneuver in around the basket to drive and draw fouls for much of the second half. As Echiverri was charged with making late free throws to ice the game for the Falcons, Marshall was not convinced the game was over yet. Marshall made three buckets inside of the last two minutes of play to cut into the deficit. But it was too little too late and the Moose fell 54-58 in their first home action of the new decade.

“Our margin of error is very small, basically,”Arnhart said. “But I saw a lot of good things if we can just take care of the basketball.”

Marshall led Palmer with 18 points. Osiensky chipped in 12 points and MacLean scored 10 for Palmer.