Warriors score NLC sweep of Kenai Kardinals

WASILLA — The Wasilla Warriors needed this one.

A night after suffering a tough loss to rival Palmer, Wasilla, a team still in the race for a top-3 seed in the upcoming Northern Lights Conference championships, scored a 59-44 win over Kenai at Wasilla High Saturday afternoon.

“Today, definitely, was a good win,” Wasilla head coach Ryan Engebretsen said. “It was a must-win in the sense of just to turn around a little bit. It was definitely a good way to end the weekend.”

Wasilla, now 3-4 in conference play, still has three big NLC games on its schedule. The Warriors, through Saturday, sit in third place in the NLC, a half-game ahead of fourth-place Soldotna. But Engebretsen said the Warriors are not fixated on the standings.

“We’re not even looking at the standings as much as where we’re at,” the head coach said. “We’re not even discussing that. We’re just worried about one game at a time and what we need to improve on so at the end of the year we’re playing our best basketball.”

The Warriors are looking ahead to three important conference games, a pair at Kodiak Friday and Saturday, and another at first-place Colony the following week.

“To end our regular season with that many league games, that’s good. We knew it would be a good test. We also knew it would give us an opportunity to improve over the course of the season before we played those games,” Engebretsen said.

Sophomore Dane Kuiper scored a game-high 28 to lead the Warriors past the Kards on Saturday. Kuiper drained six three-pointers in the win. Cash McGregor added 11, and Cameron Brown chipped in nine.

Wasilla led 30-19 at halftime, and Kuiper scored 10 of his team’s 12 third-quarter points to help the Warriors extend their lead. Wasilla allowed only nine in the first quarter and seven points in the third.

WHS girls race

past Kenai

WASILLA — Alysha Devine scored 11 of her 16 points in the first quarter to spark the Warriors and lead Wasilla to a 59-44 win over the Kenai Kardinals Saturday at Wasilla High School.

With her 11 first-quarter points, Devine helped Wasilla race to a 22-7 first-quarter lead. Kenai didn’t get its first field goal, a Cassie Ross jumper, until the 1:42 mark of the first quarter.

Kyla Dinkel posted a double-double in the win with a game-high 20 points and 16 rebounds. Dinkel scored eight of her 20 in the second quarter.

Devine and Alexis Imoe finished with 16 points each. Jenna Ford led the Warriors with four steals, and Savannah Burke added seven rebounds.

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

Wasilla boys 59, Kenai 44

Saturday, Wasilla High

Kenai 9-10-7-18—44

Wasilla 14-16-12-17—59

Kenai (44) — Theisen 1 0-0 3, Battestelli 2 0-0 4, J. McKee 6 2-5 16, Fitt 5 0-0 10, O’Neal 3 0-0 9, Spalding 1 0-0 2; Totals; 18 2-5 44.

Wasilla (59) — Brown 3 3-3 9, Krueger 1 0-0 2, Kuiper 10 2-2 28, McGregor 4 3-4 11, Dawkins 2 0-0 5, Cook 2 0-0 4; Totals: 22 8-9 59.

Wasilla girls 68, Kenai 26

Saturday, Wasilla High

Kenai 7-10-6-3—26

Wasilla 22-17-16-13—68

Kenai (26) — English 2 0-0 4, Taylor 3 6-13 12, Norvelle 0 2-2 2, Ross 2 1-4 5, Barcus 0 1-2 1, Every 1 0-0 2; Totals: 8 10-21 26.

Wasilla (68) — Ford 1 0-0 2, Imoe 6 2-6 16, Devine 7 2-6 16, Toews 4 0-0 8, Dinkel 10 0-0 20, Edwards 2 0-0 4, Burke 1 0-0 2; Totals: 31 3-8 68.