Warriors lead race for top seeds in upcoming NLC tournaments

WASILLA — With the start of the Northern Lights Conference Championships less than two weeks away, it’s tough for local players and coaches to not think about seeding in the upcoming tournament.

While it may not be the lone piece of conversation for the NLC-leading Wasilla Warriors, securing the No. 1 seed in the boys’ bracket became a much bigger focus when the Palmer Moose clinched a top-3 seed in the NLC with a 58-39 victory over the Soldotna Stars Friday night. That Palmer win ensured that Wasilla, Colony and Palmer — in an order still to be determined — will make up the top 3 seeds in the boys tournament, which starts March 10 at Palmer High.

The Warriors took additional steps toward the opportunity to clinch the top seeds with a pair of NLC victories over Kodiak at Wasilla High School. Friday, Wasilla Kodiak 43-33. The Warriors ran past the Bears 67-40 Saturday afternoon.

“The No. 1 seed would be nice,” Wasilla head coach Ryan Engebretsen said Friday evening after the win. “It’d be nice to be that team that gets to avoid the Valley rivals in the semis.”

First-place Wasilla improved to 8-1 in league play with the victories. Colony, which scored a nonconference win over Lathrop Friday, is in second place with a 6-2 mark. With the win over Soldotna Friday, and a 76-47 victory over Kenai Saturday, the Moose boys improved to 6-3 in league play.

Soldotna (4-5), Kenai (3-6) and Kodiak (0-9) currently make up the bottom three spots in the conference.

In a competitive NLC, Engebretsen said the Warriors don’t want to overlook anyone. But Wasilla, which has clinched at least a first-round bye in the tournament, doesn’t want to see a Valley opponent in the semifinals of a tourney hosted this year at Palmer High School.

“Not that Kenai can’t come out and find a way, not that Soldotna can’t come out. But since it’s in Palmer, it’d be nice to be away from a rival,” Engebretsen said. “Even us and Colony, in an ideal world, if you can avoid it, it’s a good thing.”

Wasilla’s final test of the NLC regular season comes Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. with a home game against Colony. That game could decide the top 2 seeds.

“If we can keep our foot on the pedal, win on Tuesday, that’d be huge,” Engebretsen said.

Palmer and Colony close the regular season Friday night at 7:30 p.m.. at Colony High, hitting the floor for another clash that could factor into the seeding.

But over the weekend, the Warriors couldn’t look too far ahead. Before preparing for the Knights, Wasilla had to get past a scrappy Kodiak squad that held the Warriors to only nine points in the first quarter Friday and eight in the third.

“You can’t overlook them. You don’t know what you’re going to get from them. We watched them lose to Kenai by 25 and they played them to one point the next night,” Engebretsen said.

Arguably the biggest stretch of the game for the Warriors came in the final half of the second quarter. The Warriors held a slim 13-9 lead over Kodiak with four minutes left in the first half, but closed the quarter with a 12-3 run.

Freshman Daniel Headdings scored six of his 10 points during that stretch. Kobe Brown led Wasilla with a dozen. Isaac Houck added 11.

Saturday, Wasilla separated itself in the third with an 18-8 run. Aeron Milliron scored seven of his 15 during that stretch. Brown also hit a pair of third-quarter three points. Brown supplied a game-high 17 for Wasilla. Headdings added 16, and Houck chipped in 10.

Wasilla girls sweep Kodiak

KODIAK — The Wasilla Warriors improved to 9-0 in NLC play with a pair of victories in Kodiak over the weekend.

Saturday, Willow Drorbaugh poured in a game-high 16 points to lead the Warriors to a 67-26 win over the Bears. Drorbaugh hit four three-pointers in the game. McKenna Dinkel finished with 15 points, and Leya DePriest added nine.

Dinkel also scored 15 points Friday, leading the Warriors to a 76-20 rout of Kodiak. Olivia Davies supplied a game-high 18 for Wasilla. DePriest scored 13, and Kellie Lindeman added eight.

Wasilla’s final conference game of the regular season is Tuesday against Colony at 6 p.m. Wasilla and Colony have already clinched the two first-round byes in the NLC girls tournament. Colony is currently in second place with a 7-1 mark, and plays Wasilla on Tuesday and hosts Palmer on Friday at 6 p.m. The Moose (5-3) are in third place in the conference, followed by Kenai (3-6), Soldotna (2-7) and Kodiak (0-10).

Knights sweep Lathrop

PALMER — Tyler Boyer’s big night helped the Colony Knights wallop visiting Lathrop Friday night.

The senior scored a game-high 34 points to lead the Knights to an 83-54 nonconference win over the Malemutes at Colony High School. Boyer finished with 14 field goals in the game, including a trio of three-pointers. He scored nine of Colony’s 20 first-quarter points, and 23 points in the second half. Anton Chamblee added a dozen for Colony, and Nolan Martin chipped in 11.

Gabriel Howard led Lathrop with 15 points.

In girls’ action, the Knights denied a late attempt at a Lathrop rally, and held on to score a 40-36 nonconference win over the Malemutes. Sophomore Alex Carlton netted a game-best 17 points for the Knights. The point guard hit a pair of three-pointers in the first half, and scored all seven of Colony’s points in the second quarter. Tyra Do led the Malemutes with 14 points.

On Saturday, West Valley beat the Colony girls 52-27.

Moose sweep

SoHi, Kenai

SOLDOTNA — Nine different players scored as Palmer scored a 43-22 girls basketball win over Soldotna Friday in Soldotna.

Freshman Kali Bull led Palmer with 10 points.

The Palmer boys also scored a road win Friday, beating Soldotna 58-39. Michael Kluting led the Moose with 25 points. Clayton Southwick added 16 and Payton Martin chipped in nine.

Saturday, Martin hit five three-pointers to lead Palmer to a 76-47 win over Kenai. The Palmer girls beat Kenai 33-23.