Warriors dismantle Eagles

The Wasilla Warriors boys' basketball team opened its season by hosting the West Anchorage Eagles Wednesday night, demonstrating why the Warriors will be a difficult team to beat this year.

The Warriors not only dominated the game with great height advantage, but also used speed and good shot selection to break down every part of the Eagles' game en route to an 85-45 win.

"We took what they gave us," said Wasilla coach Chuck Martin. "We had a good effort as a team and executed well on offense."

Coming into the game, it was evident that the undersized Eagles would have to use speed and athleticism to compete with the Warriors, but even that was quickly outmatched by Wasilla.

West opened the game by trying to pack the middle with a zone defense to take Wasilla center Ray Schafer out of the game. The plan immediately backfired as Adam Fitt-Chappell and Cody Schierman fired shots from the outside to rack up early points.

"They were covering Ray early," said Schierman. "We got some early steals and outside shots which opened up the middle."

Schierman had two steals in the first quarter that he promptly drove down and deposited for points.

Dominance was established from the beginning with the Warriors shooting to a 20-6 lead by the end of the first quarter.

The outside shooting success forced West to spread its zone coverage, which played into the hands of the Warriors as Fitt-Chappell, Travis Webb, and Schafer worked inside for buckets in the paint.

Wasilla's defense, anchored by the 6-foot-11 Schafer and 6-foot-6 Mason Heibel, denied the inside game to force West to shoot from the perimeter.

The intimidating presence of Schafer standing beneath the West basket, with his arms spread almost the width of the paint, kept the Eagles from shooting inside. The few West attempts inside were met with blocks or were so hurried that they were missed.

The Eagles were allowed very few second shots as the Warrior defense crashed the boards for rebounds and dominated the inside game.

By halftime, the Eagles were merely playing for pride as Wasilla's dominance on both ends of the court led to a 42-12 score by

the half.

Wasilla continued to cruise in the third, moving out to a 66-28 lead by the end of the quarter.

Wasilla fans received a treat in the third quarter that they were looking for all game --a Schafer slam dunk. Schafer took a feed low in the post, turned and stuffed the high-percentage shot for the Warriors 52nd point of the game.

Martin took advantage of the lead to give playing time to his bench during the fourth quarter.

Heibel took over the center position and brought roars from the crowd with two slam dunks of his own.

Heibel led all scorers with 10-points in the quarter to finish the game with 20. Schafer and Fitt-Chappell each scored 17 points in the game.

The Warriors gave up some late points off turnovers, but still advanced its third quarter lead to take the opener 85-45.

"I'm happy with the first night win," said Martin. "We played hard tonight."

Martin commented that he is pleased with where the team is at this point early in the season, but said it still has a lot of progress to make on defense.

The court presence of Wasilla was very evident during the game.

Players were aware of each other on the court and filled passing lanes to quickly move the ball up the court.

"We have good athletes on this team," said Martin. "But more importantly, we have good basketball players."

The Warriors travel to Midland, Texas for the Byron Johnson basketball tournament Dec. 26-29.