Warriors defeat West Anchorage Eagles in season opener

WASILLA – Though at points it looked as though the Eagles might fly fast to victory, it was the Warriors who soared to more than 10-point leads to win both boys and girls basketball games Friday evening.

In the girls’ game, the Warriors were down 10-6 in the first quarter, but by the end of the second had the Eagles tied 19-19.

Wasilla head coach Jeannie Hebert-Truax said her players’ nerves were the main issue.

“They had shots in the first half, they just needed to relax,” she said.

Wasilla forward Leya DePriest said she “always gets nervous the first game.”

Though she was the top scorer for the women Warriors this weekend, DePriest said she missed many more opportunities.

“I was not making my shots tonight,” she said.

The game was also her first playing with the Warriors after transferring from Palmer this year, which may have contributed to the shakes.

Once the jitters settled, however, the Warriors came in strong for the second quarter, with the Eagles just catching up near the end of the half.

That’s when the Wasilla turned up the heat. DePriest and her fellow forwards racked up four field goals early in the third quarter – one just the second three-pointer of the game for the Warriors, by sophomore McKenna Dinkel – compared to West’s one.

“In the second half we really picked up our defense,” Hebert-Truax said.

And with good reason. Each team racked up 10 (West) and 11 (Wasilla) fouls in the first half, and the Warriors scored most of their first-period points in free-throws. The team foul count was nearly as high in the second half.

“There was a lot of fouling around the perimeter,” DePriest said.

DePriest and Dinkel said aggressive play is typical for the West High team, but the high number of fouls may have also been a result of recent rule changes.

As of Nov. 21, according to the National Federation of High School Associations website, a change to rule 4-19-3d “expands the definition of an intentional foul to include excessive contact committed while the ball is live or until an airborne shooter returns to the floor. This recognizes an intentional foul call should be made against any player, not only on the person playing the ball.”

A new contact rule was also instated this year “to clean up perimeter play and restore freedom of movement to the game,” which may have similarly affected the foul count in Friday’s game.

“We (still) need to adjust to the new rule(s),” Dinkel said.

But they seemed to adjust well enough, ending the third period up by five points. As Wasilla tightened their defensive play, the Eagles got sloppier with their shots, and the scoring gap increased in the fourth quarter. West squeezed in two more points before the end, but with one minute left, it was time to admit defeat.

The Warriors won 50-33.

“For our first game of the year, I think it was a pretty good ball game,” Hebert-Truax said. “We’ve got a lot of things to work on but we’re just gonna try to get better and better, that’s the object of every game.”

The Wasilla boys suffered from many incomplete passes in the first quarter, taking hits from the Eagles’ number 5 early on, but were able to tie it up before the second period, 21-21.

Wasilla pulled ahead for a while, leading by three or four points, but finished the first half behind the Eagles by one point.

The gap grew to seven points in the third quarter but was closed to a one-point difference again after a breakaway and jump shot by Wasilla senior guard Ryen Milleron.

In the fourth quarter the Warriors cranked it up a notch and, field goal by field goal, transitioned into the lead, despite two of three slam dunks by West’s number 34. The Warriors’ number 22, sophomore guard Isaac Houck, widened the gap to 10 points at about the 5-minute mark, after being a strong scorer throughout the game.

With one minute left, the score was 71-59, with little sign of a game-changer. Just as in the girls’ game, West sneaked in a few more points, but so did the Wasilla team.

The Warriors beat the Eagles 74-62.

The junior varsity boys also played Friday evening, but lost 57-70.