Wasilla junior varsity stifles Malemutes

The Wasilla Warriors girls' junior varsity squad hosted the Lathrop Malemutes in what turned out to be a game of two vastly different halves during Friday night's opening game of girls' basketball between the two schools.

With a first half full of momentum shifts that resulted in a 20-20 tie at halftime, the Warriors came out determined in the second half and played solid basketball on both ends of the court to run away with a 52-28 thrashing of the Malemutes.

"We were slow to get it going in the first half," said Wasilla coach Ryan Hewitt. "We stepped it up in the second half and hit our shots."

The Warriors started the game with a pressure defense that created turnovers and gave the Malemutes few open shots.

The Warrior offense worked the ball around to get it inside to Melissa Mayes and Erika Lund. Mayes and Lund worked the inside well to score and dominate offensive rebounding. With a team effort on scoring and defense, the Warriors took a 13-8 lead by the end of the first quarter.

Lathrop came out with a press defense that created problems for the Warriors in the second quarter. The Malemutes created turnovers with the press and scored on the extra opportunities to climb back into the game.

The Warriors continued to pass the ball inside, but the Malemutes packed the paint to deny penetration and intercept the passes.

Lathrop tied the score at 20-20 with 1:30 remaining in the half. The tie score held going into halftime.

"We were getting out-hustled in the second quarter," said Hewitt. "We weren't executing well at all against their press."

Wasilla figured out the Lathrop press at halftime, immediately breaking the press to get the ball up the court and set up the offense.

Wasilla's offense started to click with the outside shooting of Cheyene Gilman and Lund. Gilman scored seven of the Warriors' 11 points in the quarter. Gilman would finish with 13 points in the game.

The Warriors' defense sealed off Malemute opportunities to score and created turnovers with a full court press of its own, shutting the Lathrop offense down and allowing them only eight points in the second half.

The outside shooting of the Warriors cleared the inside as Malemute defenders were forced to come out to guard against the shooters.

With the inside cleared, the Warriors returned to their inside penetration game as Mayes enjoyed a 10-point fourth quarter with Malorie Egger kicking in five. Mayes finished with 14 points in the game.

The Warriors completely dominated both ends of the court in the second half to run away to the 52-28 win.

"We played with pure intensity in the second half," said Hewitt. "We cut off their passing lanes with our press and put more pressure on the ball on defense."

With similar strengths on the Wasilla varsity and junior varsity squads, Lathrop applied the same strategy of packing the middle to deny inside penetration in both games.

Both Wasilla teams responded with outside shooting, then returned to the inside game when defenders came out to guard against the outside shot.