The Homer girls basketball team trounced the competition in the Homer Winter Carnival tournament Feb. 11-13, winning all three of their games against the Dimond JV team and the Bristol Bay and Ninilchik varsity teams. 

The Homer boys team finished off the weekend with a 2-1 record that included a solid win against Bristol Bay on Friday evening.

Homer will play at home again this weekend, starting with girls and boys varsity games against Anchorage Christian School today at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. Both teams will play Grace Christian School on Friday at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m., and then finish the weekend with games against Houston on Saturday at 1:30 and 3 p.m.

Tournament accolades

Homer players also showed up on top in the tournament MVP and all-tournament team rankings. Senior Mariner Madison Akers was named as the female tournament MVP. Senior Mariner Aurora Waclawski made the girls’ all-tournament team, along with Bristol Bay juniors Riley Lyon and Anna Hanson, and Dimond sophomore Haley Brink and freshman Jalyn Osborne. Sophomore Mariner Charles Rohr was named for the boys’ all-tournament team, which also included Unalaska senior Ben Enlow, Ninilchik juniors Austin White and Tyler Presley, and Bristol Bay junior Austin King.

Ninilchik, Homer girls and Unalaska boys
win Thursday games

The Homer varsity girls took an early lead against the Dimond JV team and widened the gap in points with each quarter, achieving a 57-49 win. Senior Madison Akers lead the team with 20 game points, followed up by senior Kayla Stafford’s 16 points and senior Aurora Waclawski’s 10 points. 

Unalaska’s team of mostly junior and senior boys dominated the younger Mariner boys team in Thursday’s game, finishing with a 57-24 Unalaska win. 

Both Ninilchik’s boys and girls teams came out on top in their games against Bristol Bay, though the boys won by a wider margin than the girls. Ninilchik boys finished with a 70-46 win, while the girls had a tight game and a final score of 41-38.

Homer boys come out on top on Friday

Homer boys had a strong game against Bristol Bay, where they won by 27 points with a 69-42 final score. Rohr contributed 21 game points, senior Johann Kallelid scored 14 points and sophomore Jordan Beachy and junior Hunter Edens scored 11 points each. 

The team’s win on Friday showed the progress the boys team are starting to make, despite their young roster.

“The first game on Thursday was a little bit of a struggle, Unalaska is a good team so that went a little rougher for us, but last night we fought back and had a good win against Bristol Bay,” said Mariner boys varsity coach Weston Carroll. “That was an opportunity for us, saw a lot of improvement. I think they played real well.”

The girls picked up another win on Friday, this time against Bristol Bay, with a 53-46 final score. Bristol Bay finished the first quarter with a one-point lead against Homer, but then fell behind in the second quarter. Though Homer maintained a lead the rest of the game, Bristol Bay never let the gap widen too much and finished only 7 points behind. 

Unalaska boys finished their game against Ninilchik with a 60-47 win, unsurprisingly after dominating the score throughout the game. Ninilchik girls varsity experienced an overwhelming defeat against the Dimond girls JV team, which ended with a final score of 42-23.

Students show off skills

The Saturday morning skills competition provided another opportunity for Akers to shine once again. Akers picked up a win in a game of bump, which involves participants lining up and shooting from the free throw line. If a free throw shot is missed, the player must make a layup before the next player’s free throw in order to stay in the game. Bristol Bay player Austin King won the boys game of bump.

Ninilchik player DeeAnn White took the title of girls free throw champion while her teammate Sarah Zimmerman was named three-point champion.

Sophomore Mariner Joe Ravin holds the free throw champion position for the boys skills competition. Unalaska player Trevor Wilson took three-point champion.

Homer girls, Unalaska get third win of weekend

The Homer girls finished up the weekend with a staggering defeat of Ninilchik’s girls varsity team. The first quarter’s end score of 22-4 in Homer’s favor was indicative of the rest of the game, which finished with a 58-21 Mariner win. Akers contributed 25 points and senior Aurora Waclawski scored 12 points.

Though the girls took three wins for the Mariners, the tournament games still challenged the team.

“I think that we fought through some adversity, said sophomore Mariner Alissa Cole. “The first two games were a little hard, but we played as a team, worked together, kept it simple and played our game. It all starts with defense and we play good defense and work together and that’s why we come out on top.”

Homer boys fought hard against Ninilchik during the Saturday evening game, but were beaten back by their opponents. The game ended with a final score of 58-43 for a Ninilchik win. Impressively, Rohr scored 22 points — nearly half the Mariner’s total game score. 

The Bristol Bay girls varsity team overtook Dimond JV, winning the game 10 points ahead with a final score of 61-51. The Unalaska boys varsity team took their third win of the weekend after defeating Bristol Bay boys 45-22. 

Anna Frost can be reached at anna.frost@homernews.com.