Lady Nanooks dominate, boys split with Eielson

On their home turf, the Nome-Beltz Lady Nanooks twice beat the Eielson Ravens last weekend in lopsided games in which the score didn’t give a true picture of the intensity of play.

The Ravens have some quality players but their game never seemed to come together. The Lady Nanooks, who get sharper every game, won 63 to 36 Friday and 57 to 32 Saturday.

“They definitely had some individuals out there,” said coach Joe Musich in response to the Nugget’s question about the Ravens’ players. “But for Eielson it’s tough. They have a new team every year and they have a new coach this year also. So they have the odds stacked against them a little bit.” 

At the end of the first quarter Friday the Nome girls led 19 to 2. For the game totals Kastyn Lie had 14 points, E.J. Rochon 13, and Dayton Medlin 12. Saturday E.J. Rochon scored 17 and Kastyn Lie 15 to lead the Nanooks.

Eielson’s five-foot eleven-inch freshman Tobias Page led all scorers with 21.

What does a coach tell his team after a lopsided victory? “What I tell them is to make sure they play physical, continue to play their game and don’t allow the fact that we’re winning easily to dictate how they play, to make them play out of position, or make them get lazy,” said coach Musich.  “We have a tournament next week and we don’t want to go into the tournament playing lazy.”

The big lead gave the coach a chance to play everybody on the team. “It was good to see them out there and enjoying themselves for when we get a little experience for when we really need them,” said Musich of the reserves, younger players who don’t play a lot. 

Both Nanook teams head to the Husky shootout in Kotzebue next weekend to face Houston, Galena, Redington (Wasilla), Kotzebue and Noorvik.

The two boys games against Eielson were worth the price of a season ticket. The Ravens are big and fast and came to town ready to play. “It’s one of the few times I haven’t lost sleep after a loss,” said Nanook Coach Pat Callahan about Friday’s 84 to 62 loss. “I thought we played really well yesterday and it didn’t happen and that’s the way sports go sometimes. And Eielson’s a good team. Bigger, more athletic, quicker. They’re probably a top five, maybe sixth team in 3A. Four, five or six. Somewhere in there.”

Gareth Hansen scored 18 and Caden Hanebuth 10.

On Saturday the Nanooks turned the table on the Ravens with an intense 64 to 59 win. With two minutes to go the score was 56 to 57 in favor of Eielson. With eleven seconds to go the Nanooks were up 62 to 59. But the Ravens couldn’t respond.

“Yeah, that was fun,” said Coach Callahan after the game.  “We thought we played well enough to win last night. Sometimes they say the final score doesn’t indicate how the game went. I thought yesterday we played well enough to win the game and I thought yesterday it should have come down to two three or four points at the end and it didn’t. Somehow you look up and it’s 84 to 62. So we just stayed with the mentality that we played well enough yesterday and we’re going to do the same thing today and things went our way today.”

Gareth Hansen led with 30 points, including 11 for 11 from the free throw line. Dawson Evans scored 12 points and Stephan Anderson 11. Eielson’s Matt Scarboro had 28.

The Nome Nugget

PO Box 610
Nome, Alaska 99762
USA

Phone: (907) 443-5235
Fax: (907) 443-5112

www.nomenugget.net

External Links

Sign Up For Breaking News

Stay informed on our latest news!

Manage my subscriptions

Subscribe to Breaking News feed