Redington boys, girls win during school’s first basketball senior night

WASILLA — Redington had the chance to honor its first set of basketball seniors and the Huskies celebrated with a pair of varsity wins over rival Houston. The Huskies girls scored a 50-41 win over Houston and the boys followed with a 61-40 victory over the Hawks as Redington hosted its first basketball senior night in school history Tuesday night at Redington Jr./Sr. High School.

“It was awesome,” Redington boys basketball head coach Tony Brooke said earlier this week. “We put a lot of time and effort making sure this group was honored in a special way.”

Redington’s first set of basketball seniors included four on the boys’ squad (Jaycob Elliott, Bristin Conaway, Tommy Long and Brian Amirault) and three girls (Rayme Harris, Kiana McGovern and Courtney Crockett).

In addition to the senior night ceremony between the varsity games, Brooke said the school’s pep band also performed during the games for the first time.

“It was probably the most electric atmosphere we’ve ever had in that gym,” Brooke said. “We couldn’t have asked for a better crowd, better atmosphere.”

Both varsity programs for the school, which opened its doors for the 2015-16 school year, have enjoyed significant improvement this year. The boys have notched wins over Aniak, Houston, Susitna Valley, Bristol Bay and Nenana. The girls have three Southcentral Conference wins, with a victory last week at Seward and a two-game regular season sweep against the Hawks. The Redington girls also scored its first win over a 4A program in school history, beating Eagle River 41-35.

“It’s been fun to see everybody grow and advance on both sides,” Brooke said.

Brooke said there’s certainly increased excitement about the basketball programs throughout the school. It’s similar to what he’s seen with other sports at Redington. As teams start to collect some wins, Brooke said excitement grows.

“We’re starting to build that culture,” Brooke said. “While we’ve got wins, we’re still building. We’ve still got a long way to go, but the buzz is there.”

Brooke’s boys’ squad used a 20-2 third-quarter run to grab the 61-40 victory over the Hawks. Brooke said a key to the game was a strong second quarter followed by the big third.

“Sometimes in the second quarter we really struggled. We’ve struggled all year in that quarter,” Brooke said.

Brooke said the Huskies have also been working on their ability to maintain a lead. They did that Tuesday by setting the tone defensively, Brooke said.

“We started getting turnover after turnover after turnover, and turned turnovers into points,” Brooke said.

Brody Brooks led Redington with 20 points in the win. Elliott added 17 and Amirault chipped in 11. Gavin Mulhaney led the Hawks with 13 points.

The Redington girls used 30 second-half points to get its second win of the season over Houston. The teams were tied 20-20 at halftime.

Crockett helped Redington ice the win, hitting 7 of 11 free throws in the final quarter. She finished with 11 points. Marian Aparezuk led Redington with a dozen and Madilena Koozaata also scored 11.

Mary Graham led Houston with 11 points.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.

Redington boys 61, Houston 40

Tuesday night, Redington

Houston 12-6-2-20—40

Redington 11-14-20-16—61

Houston (40) — Wyrick 3 1-3 7, Warner 1 0-0 2, T. Croghan 2 0-0 4, G. Mulhaney 6 1-5 13, O. Mulhaney 2 4-4 8, Graham 1 0-0 2, Ritter 3 0-0 8; 18 6-14 40.

Redington (61) — Straughn 5 0-0 10, Eillott 7 1-1 17, Amirault 4 3-3 11, Brooks 7 6-8 20, Conaway 1 1-2 3; Totals: 24 11-14 61.

Redington girls 50, Houston 41

Tuesday, Redington

Houston 5-15-8-14—41

Redington 5-15-11-19—50

Houston (41) — Malidore 3 0-0 6, Graham 5 1-4 11, Davis 1 0-0 3, Whitted 2 3-6 8, Winzishire 2 0-0 5, Ritchie 3 2-2 9; Totals: 16 6-12 41.

Redington (50) — Koozaata 3 2-2 11, McGovern 2 0-2 5, Crockett 2 7-11 11, Aparezuk 3 3-4 12, Fuller 3 3-4 9, Harris 1 0-0 2; Totals; 14 15-21 50.