High School Sports

Ninilchik boys cruise to second straight 1A basketball championship

By the time the final buzzer sounded in Saturday's Class 1A boys state championship, the Ninilchik Wolverines had destroyed any doubt about who was the best 1A team in the state.

Ninilchik started the championship game with three straight corner 3-pointers from senior forward Dalton Geppert and led from start to finish in its 40-point championship victory over Gambell. The Wolverines defeated Gambell 79-39 for their second straight state title.

"It's great to be able to bring two titles to this school and bring it back-to-back, especially," said Ninilchik senior Austin White, who led the Wolverines with a 23-point, 14-rebound double-double. "It's pretty special. Not many teams get to do this."

The Wolverines scored the game's first 15 points and held Gambell scoreless for the first four minutes, before the Qughsatkut — or King Polar Bears — got on the scoreboard with a pair of free throws from Wallace Ungwiluk.

Ninilchik outscored Gambell 26-4 in the first quarter and the King Polar Bears never got closer than 18 points the rest of the way.

Geppert drilled five of his six 3-pointers and scored 19 of his 24 points in the first half for Ninilchik.

"Last year I scored zero points in the championship game so I came out and I had something to prove this time," Geppert said.

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Ninilchik won its championship and semifinals games by a combined 60 points, but the journey to two straight titles didn't come without some adversity.

The Wolverines won their state play-in game over Aniak by 10 points and their quarterfinals game over Shaktoolik by three.

"Our first two games were close games and we were just playing tight," Geppert said. "We weren't playing our type of basketball. Coach told us to come out and play loose, it's our last game, so we did. We came out and played as tough as we could."

Tyler Presely (12 points) and Garrett Koch (11) joined Geppert and White in double figures for Ninilchik.

White, who is headed to the UAA men's basketball team in the fall, added three blocks and four steals. A 6-foot-8 forward, White was this year's Class 1A Player of the Year.

Gambell's Wallace Ungwiluk led all scorers with 25 points, but no other King Polar Bear scored more than six points. Gambell shot 28 percent as a team.

Despite the loss, Ungwiluk said Gambell still takes pride in its season. The King Polar Bears hadn't made a championship of any kind in more than 30 years and nobody expected them to be in the state title game, he said.

"To come out to state and make it to the state championship is a huge accomplishment," said Ungwiluk, a 5-foot-8.5 senior point guard. "Nobody would have thought that Gambell, little short guys like us, would make the championships and be able to compete out here."

Unlike Gambell — a tournament dark horse — the expectations were always there for Ninilchik.

Wolverines coach Nick Finley knew he had a good group this season, so he challenged them by littering their nonconference schedule with 3A and 4A teams.

"I wanted to do it this year for these guys," Finley said. "I knew we had something special, so I wanted to do it for these guys and it paid off."

The Wolverines opened the regular season at the SoHi Tip-off tournament, where they beat 3A Nikiski and 4A Soldotna, before falling to 4A Dimond in the championship.

"We played a lot of tough competition," Geppert said. "I think we played five 4A schools and five 3A schools and we only got blown out by Dimond, so I think that's a pretty good season."

Off the court, the Wolverines are a laid back bunch, Finley said. Ninilchik has only eight players, so everyone gets minutes. In practice, they bring up middle school players so they can play 5-on-5.

"Nobody understands all the hard work these kids have put in the offseason," Finley said. "I really appreciate everything they've done and our community and I'm just really happy for these kids to go out this way.

"There's four seniors and they all had phenomenal careers playing for me. I'm speechless. It's awesome."

Newhalen 92, Buckland 88, OT

Douglas Kalmbacher and Matthew Tretikoff combined for 59 points to power Newhaven's 92-88 overtime win over Buckland in the third-place game.

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Kalmbacher scored 30 points and Tretikoff netted 29. Kalmbacher's game also included eight rebounds, five assists and four steals.

Buckland, which was outscored 15-11 in the extra period, landed six players in double figures — Martin Hadley (18), Brandon Armstrong (14), Ronald Jones (13), Isaiah Kirk (11),  Lenny Hadley (10) and Jayden Hadley (10).

Shaktoolik 88, Hydaburg 59

Shaktoolik's Everson Paniptchuk stole the show in the fourth-place game, pumping in 43 points in an 88-59 triumph over Hydaburg.

Paniptchuk, a 5-foot-6 senior, drained 10 of 24 shots from 3-point range and added nine steals, five assists and four rebounds.

Mike Eaglestaff delivered a huge game for Hydaburg by racking up 28 points and 12 rebounds.

All-Tournament team

Jamal Alstrom, Alakanuk
Benjamin Apangalook, Gambell
Josh Clark, Newhalen
Mike Eaglestaff, Hydaburg
Wally Flynn, Cherfornak
Dalton Geppert, Ninilchik
Mason Hoppe, Klawock
Ronald Jones, Buckland
Douglas Kalmbacher, Newhalen
Kalenik Molodih,, Nikolaevsk
Tyler Presley, Ninilchik
Everson Paniptchuk, Shaktoolik
Ian Samuelson, King Cove
Allen Starr, Tanana
Wallace Ungwiluk, Gambell
Austin White, Ninilchik

Stephan Wiebe

Stephan Wiebe writes about all things Alaska sports.

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