Blowouts and fire alarms highlighted the first day of action Thursday at the T-Bird Classic, an eight-team girls basketball tournament that was interrupted briefly by a fire alarm at East High.
The stoppage came during the first quarter of Soldotna's 67-40 win over Valdez in the tournament's first game. The Stars were on fire at the time and the forced break didn't cool them off as they raced to a 23-5 first-quarter lead.
Kaillee Skjold led Soldotna with 10 points and 10 rebounds and teammate Kelci Benson added 13 points. Marian Wamsley's 19 points paced Valdez.
In other games, East beat Seward 42-26, Kenai topped Eagle River 40-15 and Palmer downed Kotzebue 58-44.
Taria Page's double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds led East, which put up more than twice as many shots than the Seahawks, 52-25. Emily Brockman's seven points topped Seward.
Taylor Blake poured in 21 points and Leya Depriest racked up 14 points and 10 rebounds in Palmer's victory. The Moose trailed 15-4 after one quarter and 22-19 at the half but stormed back in the second half. Colleen Snyder tossed in 18 points and Mary Sue Hyatt added 11 for Kotzebue.
Justice English's 12 points led a balanced offense for Kenai, which led 32-11 after three quarters. Dana Panfil was Eagle River's top scorer with six points.
boys hockey
South 9, West 0
Steven Orizotti scored a goal and three assists, Jared Cruz racked up four assists and Cayden Cahill added two goals Thursday in South's 9-0 shutout of West in Cook Inlet Conference hockey action at Ben Boeke Ice Arena.
The Wolverines led 5-0 after one period, with Cahill's scoring both of his goals that period.
Goaltender Ben Simpson stopped 18 shots, half of them in the third period, for South. Joe Chekan stopped 26 of 35 shots fired at the West net.
girls hockey
Third-period goals lift Service-East
Service-East scored three times in the third period Thursday to pull away from Chugiak-Eagle River and claim a 4-1 girls hockey win at the McDonald Center.
After a scoreless first period, Chugiak-Eagle River led 1-0 on Autumn Sperry's goal, but Madison Millar scored for Service-East to make it 1-1 after two periods. Service-East dominated the third period with goals from Bria Lindsoe, Heather Merkouris and Kaitlan Miknich.
Muller, Tipton key Dimond-West victory
Brandi Muller scored a hat trick and Taylor Tipton furnished two goals Thursday in Dimond-West's 9-1 shellacking of South-Bartlett in a girls hockey game at Ben Boeke Ice Arena.
Muller scored twice in a four-goal second period for Dimond-West, which fired 28 shots at South-Bartlett goaltender Zoe Scherer. Muller completed the hat trick by scoring the game's final goal while her team was short-handed.
Morgan Newhouse scored South-Bartlett's only goal to put her team briefly in a tie, 1-1 late in the first period.
Boys basketball
Palmer 49, West 47
A pair of Connor Looney free throws in the waning seconds sealed a 49-47 nonconference win over West for a visiting Palmer boys basketball team Thursday.
Looney, who led all scorers with 21 points, drained both ends of a one-and-one with 4.7 seconds remaining to score the game's final points. West called a timeout, but failed to attempt a shot on its last possession.
West (2-1), led by I.K. Obligde's 12 points and 12 rebounds, rallied from six points down to tie the score at 47-47 on a Jay Zamora 3-pointer with 14 seconds remaining.
Anchorage Daily News