Layland named MVP during 2009 Winter Carnival tourney </MCC HEAD>

Story last updated at 10:07 PM on Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Layland named MVP during 2009 Winter Carnival tourney

By Aaron Selbig
Staff Writer

At one point during Friday night's Homer Winter Carnival Tournament matchup between Homer and the Eagle River Wolves, Eagle River center Cierra Mickens turned toward her coach and threw her hands up in the air, as if to say, "What else can I do?"

Photographer: Aaron Selbig, Homer News

Homer's Piper Daugharty (far left) attempts to inbound the ball during a Feb. 6 game versus Eagle River.

Mickens had just pulled down a defensive rebound only to have Homer center Lindsay Layland rip the ball out of her hands and put it back up for an easy layup. A few series later, Layland, who scored 13 of her 20 points in the second half, scored on a powerful drive, got a steal at the other end, went coast to coast by herself and scored again.
Behind Layland's dominance in the post, solid outside shooting from Piper Daugharty and the speedy play of guard Alecia Stafford, the Lady Ms broke open a tight game in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Wolves 17-5 on their way to a 48-37 win and a berth in the tournament championship game.
"She's realizing that she's capable of scoring 20 in a game and when she sets her mind to it, she's very difficult to stop," Homer Head Coach Deb Lowney said of Layland. "She leads us in steals, scoring, rebounding and blocks. She's really playing pretty flawlessly."
If her confidence continues to catch up with her abilities, said Lowney, Layland has what it takes to play basketball at the college level. Homer coaches are now sending out feelers, trying to interest college coaches in their young star.
Winning the tournament's Most Valuable Player award won't hurt her chances.
"For her to pull that award out is a testament to how hard she works," said Lowney. "I would like to see her take it to the next level."
Daugharty scored 14 for the Lady Ms and Deanna Weaver added 6.
Homer's run to a championship matchup with West Valley was forged the previous night in a first-round game against the Skyview Panthers, when they busted out of a first-half scoring slump to take over after halftime.
"We match up well with them," said Lowney. "We knew it was going to be close and go to the team that fought the hardest. Our shooting percentage was really bad -- 17 percent -- but luckily for us, Skyview didn't shoot much better."
The Lady Mariners, who have struggled all season to control their turnovers, committed a relatively low 20 while pulling down 35 rebounds.
"That's huge," said Lowney. "If were going to control the boards like that we should be successful."
The Lady Ms also kept control of their turnovers -- 22 -- in Sunday's tournament championship game against the West Valley Wolfpack, but found themselves in a 35-10 hole at the half behind a miserable 3 for 26 shooting effort from the field.
"I thought that game would be a lot closer," said Lowney. "We were getting good shots, but just couldn't make them for whatever reason. We were all discouraged when we walked off the court. We thought we had a good shot at winning our own tournament."
The Skyview Panthers will get a shot at revenge at 7 p.m. Friday night when they step on the Alice Witte Gymnasium court for the second time in as many weeks. On Saturday at 3 p.m., the Lady Mariners will host the Seward Seahawks, who defeated them earlier in the season at Seward.
Lowney expects both games to be close. "We will all have to bring our 'A' game to the court," she said.
Aaron Selbig can be reached at aaron.selbig@homernews.com.