After suffering two tough losses over the weekend at the Seahawk Classic tournament in Seward, the Homer boys' basketball team found themselves headed for disaster Saturday when they trailed Dillingham 22-7 after the first quarter.
"We started out pretty terrible," said Homer head coach Russ Radliff. "Our guys just weren't ready to play. We knew they were going to press us but we were still throwing the ball away."
In the second, Radliff realized it was time to take drastic action if his team was going to avoid going 0 for 3 at the tournament. In a move designed to provide a spark, he pulled all five of his starters and gave the bench a chance to respond.
"We started over in the second," said Radliff. "Next thing you know, we were playing much better defense and we got right back in it. After halftime, we came out and played great for the whole second half."
After bringing the score to 29-22 at the half, the run-and-gun Mariners turned on the jets, scoring 40 points in the second half on their way to a blowout 62-44 victory over the Wolverines.
Dean Devaney and Corey Sutherland led Homer with 18 and 17 points respectively.
Deven Kennelty, filling in for the injured Mike Pate, scored 7 and provided the Mariners with a much-needed defensive presence inside.
Pate, who rolled his ankle in practice last Wednesday, missed the tournament but is expected to be back sometime in the next two weeks.
On Friday, Homer dropped a 57-36 game to Seward, who are led by dominating forward Robert Perea.
Perea scored 23 for the Seahawks, who defeated Monroe Catholic Saturday to win their home tournament.
"He's a heck of a player," said Radliff of Perea. "He can really score and if you try to double him, he passes really well. He might be the best individual talent we've seen all season."
The Seahawks were 10 of 12 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter, when they broke open the game on a 19-5 run.
For Homer, Devaney hit 3 three-pointers on his way to 14 points while Sutherland chipped in 12.
Radliff said the Mariners have suffered a bad stretch of about five minutes in each of their recent games.
"We just seem to get stagnant offensively, make turnovers, and then we're fighting from behind," he said. "We've got to get over that. We're getting closer to playing a full game and when we do, we're going to be pretty tough."
Homer will next face the Skyview Panthers, at home Friday at 8:45 p.m., before getting a chance at revenge against Seward on Saturday at 4:45 p.m.
"It's going to be a great challenge to play Seward again," said Radliff.
Aaron Selbig can be reached at aaron.selbig@homernews.com.