Not exactly.

With its nonconference win over its 2A neighbor on Tuesday night, the 4A Homer girls ended the longest current winning streak in the state.

It's true that, as an Alaska School Activities Association endowment game, it doesn't count toward the teams' official records. But that isn't likely to make the taste of defeat any less bitter for the Ninilchik girls.

For 56 straight games, including an endowment game against Cordova last season, the Ninilchik Wolverines had not suffered a loss. Nine of those 56 wins had come against larger 3A and 4A schools, and Ninilchik had been homing in on its own state record of 57 straight wins.

"As far as I'm concerned, the streak is over," said Dan Leman, the Ninilchik coach who has guided his Wolverines to 10 straight District 3/2A titles as well as five state championships in the past seven years. In three of those seasons Ninilchik was unbeaten. "But I told my players, 'It's a loss, nothing more, nothing less.'

"Now we just have to start a new streak."

Dan's daughter Whitney, who fought off the flu to score a game-high 21 points, said there was silence in the Wolverines' locker room following the game. The last time Leman, now a senior, had been suited up for a Ninilchik loss was her freshman year, in her very first high school game.

"It hurts, definitely," she said. "But we're going to (the Nenana) tournament tomorrow, and I know we're going to play harder than we've ever played before."

For the Homer players, who were clicking with some of their most creative offense of the season, the game's ASAA status didn't reduce the impact of beating the three-time defending state 2A champs.

"They were very aware of it," Mariner coach Mark Mahan said of Ninilchik's status as the top-ranked 2A team in the state. "And Ninilchik takes pride in the fact of how many (big schools) in a row they've beaten. I don't think our girls wanted to get on that list."

The Mariners, who snapped a seven-game losing streak of their own, showed balance offensively, as seven Mariners scored in the game. Channing Setterquist led the way with 13 points and Sara Thompson had 11.

"It's nice to beat them," said Homer senior Rose Sinnhuber, who played her first two high school seasons in District 3 with 2A Homer Christian School. "I've never beaten them, so this was a big game for me."

Over the weekend, the Mariners fell 50-45 at home to Skyview on Friday and lost 42-32 to host Soldotna the following night.

After trailing 26-12 at halftime, the Mariners pulled to within seven near the end of the third quarter.

Homer coach Mark Mahan said, considering Soldotna's No. 2 ranking, he was encouraged by how close it was.

Caitlin Crandall led the Mariners with 12 points and Bailey Lowney added five.

Against Skyview, Channing Setterquist scored 12 points to lead the Mariners, while Lowney netted 11 and Crandall scored nine.

Sepp Jannotta can be reached at sjannotta@homer news.com.