After losing their first two games of the season, the Bartlett girls basketball team hadn’t tasted the bitterness of defeat since Dec. 17. Heading into its matchup with the Dimond Lynx on Friday, Bartlett had won 11 straight games and ranked first in the Cook Inlet Conference with an unblemished 9-0 record against conference competition.
The Lynx came in on a two-game skid but were able to capitalize on an uncharacteristically sloppy and mistake-prone outing by the Golden Bears to come from behind to pull off a 47-41 upset.
“Bartlett is a really good team and these girls came together tonight and it’s a good victory for us,” Dimond coach Charles McCubrey said.
It was a back-and-forth game that saw the two teams exchange the lead on several occasions. Dimond finished the opening period leading 18-14 and Bartlett went into halftime up 27-25. McCubrey said his message to the team after the tightly contested first half between the two young teams was to stick together.
“We knew that if we could take their best shot, they took our best shot that we could keep the momentum in our favor and we thought he had a good chance in those final 16 minutes,” added McCubrey.
His message appeared to hit home with his players because they used a 10-0 run to open the third period to regain the lead and didn’t trail again. The main catalyst for their second half surge was the clutch play from sophomore captain Maile Wilcox.
“It’s nice to beat a team that’s undefeated in the conference,” Wilcox said. “A lot of people going into the season doubted us and thought we would be one of the worst teams in the conference but we came out and showed that we’re here to play.”
The leading scorer for the Lynx was another underclassmen in freshman Sienna Pederson who recorded 12 points. She was glad to get back on track following a disappointing loss days earlier and was even more ecstatic that it came against a team they had lost to by 20 points earlier in the season.
“After the really upsetting loss to South a few nights ago, it feels really good and since they beat us last time, it feels even better,” Pederson said. “Its a big win for us and come back from the game before.”
McCubrey praised his young team that is predominantly compiled of freshmen and sophomores for their ability to keep their composure, limit their turnovers, not get overwhelmed by Bartlett’s pressure and control the pace of the game.
“We just came off a bad loss a couple nights ago and we were really fired up because of it,” Wilcox said. “We knew we had to go 100 percent to win this game so pulled it together.
The Lynx have eight underclassmen to four seniors and juniors so their young nucleus should continue to grow.
“We’re such a young team that it’s mind-boggling that we’re only going to have one senior next year,” added Pederson.
The highest scorers on the night came from Bartlett, with junior Mikayla Johnson totaling 17 points and senior Nyakoat Ruot adding 13 points.
West girls win 15th straight game
While Bartlett had their winning streak snapped, the West girls team extended its victorious run in dominant fashion with a 61-14 victory over East. Freshman Tonya Karpow outscored the Thunderbirds entire team by herself with her team-leading 17 points. Three of her teammates nearly reached double figures in scoring as well with Natalie Drussell, Noelani Quitugua-Banks, and Juliette Adlawan each recording nine points respectively.
With the win combined with the Golden Bears’ loss, the Eagles moved into sole possession of first place in the CIC standings with a pair of matchups between the two teams within four days of each other looming. The result also means that their overall record improves to 18-1 and conference record to 12-0.
East boys stay red-hot by making it rain from behind the arc
The Thunderbirds improved to 19-1 on the season, stayed perfect in conference play, and extended their historic win streak against Alaska competition to 44 games with a 79-44 victory over the West High Eagles on Friday night. They were lethal from behind the arc with 12 made 3-pointers to the Eagles’ three.
The deadliest shooter on the court for either team was senior Daion ‘Darael’ Doughty who sunk a whopping seven 3-pointers on his way to scoring a game-high 27 points. He made at least one in every period and two in three of the four quarters.
“The last few games I hadn’t been hitting them like that so this game I knew I had to pick it up,” Doughty said. “I went out there and shot, if you give me space, I’m going to pull and that’s how it went.”
East outscored West by 10 or more points in three of the four periods including a 29-10 advantage in the fourth quarter when they put the game away. The Thunderbirds had two other players score double digit points in seniors Elijah Reed with 13 points, Kyler Johnson with 12 points, and Damarion Delaney with 10 points respectively.