West boys open Alaska Airlines Classic with statement win over out-of-state opponent

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West’s Mat Chuol attempts a layup. West High School faced Ronan High School, of Ronan, Montana, in the opening round of the Alaska Airlines Classic boys basketball tournament on January 18, 2023. (Marc Lester / ADN)

After coming into the 2022-2023 season unranked in preseason polls, the West Anchorage boys basketball team is off to a strong 4-1 start with their lone loss coming against an out-of-state opponent.

That loss came on Dec. 17, 2022, and since that time, the Eagles have yet to experience the bitter taste of defeat.

They are soaring high following a commanding 65-45 win over the Ronan Chiefs of Ronan, Montana, to open up the 2023 Alaska Airlines Classic boys basketball tournament on Thursday.

“I’m happy they came out with some energy,” West coach Josh Muehlenkamp said. “We’ve got to tighten a lot of things up, but we’re a young varsity team. A lot of kids haven’t played together, and we have moments and spurts where we look like we can be very good.”

The Eagles got a chance to play in front of a rowdy crowd in a gymnasium full of their fellow classmates as students were excused from class to watch the game.

“It was a great team win, and the atmosphere was good in there,” junior guard Des’laone Cook said.

West fed off that energy and channeled it into a blazing hot start to the game, scoring 26 points in the opening quarter alone, 18 of which came on six 3-pointers.

“They have the belief that they’re good shooters and when you believe in something, you can make it happen,” Muehlenkamp said.

Almost the entire team got in on the behind-the-arc action as seven different players knocked down one or more shots from long range and four West players had two or more. The Eagles shot 45 from the field overall and were actually more proficient on 3-pointers with 46%.

“We came prepared,” Cook said. “We got a lot of shots up this morning and came together as a team.”

While just two players reached double figures in scoring, with sophomore Boub Marial leading the team with 14 points and Cook coming in second with 11, the Eagles spread the ball around well and got almost everyone a bucket. Eleven of the 12 players that saw time on the court scored.

“We’re all three level scorers,” Cook said. “We can score and play defense. We need to play better defense and execute on the rebound better.”

With so much turnover across the league and around the state at the 4A level, West is focused on the task at hand but firmly believes it can make some noise this season and is playing with a “why not us?” mentality.

“It gives a high tone and sets a bar,” Cook said. “We have to achieve that bar every game and come out stronger and stronger.”

With two more out-of-state teams in town for the tournament, including one with nationally ranked recruits, the Eagles are looking forward to the opportunities to prove themselves and make even bigger statements going forward.

“We’re coming for the state title this year,” Cook said. “I feel like it’s going to be tough and anybody can get it this year. It will be whoever is the better team and whoever plays better together.”

Mariners get back on track

The Alaska Airlines Classic Girls Basketball tournament wrapped up on Thursday, and after falling to the hosting West High Eagles 63-55 on Tuesday night and having their six-game win streak snapped, the Tikigaq Harpoonerettes bounced back with a pair of commanding victories in the round-robin tourney.

First was their 62-43 win over the Ronan Maidens from Montana on Wednesday followed by a 70-58 win over the Metlakatla Miss Chiefs on Thursday afternoon.

They were led in scoring in all three games by standout sophomore guard Jennifer Nash, who netted double figures in points in each. She dropped a game-high 30 points in the last game alone that included knocking down a trio of 3-pointers. She recorded over half of her final total in the fourth quarter with 16 points.

“She was highlighted all throughout the season last year,” Tikigaq head coach Ramona Rock said. “She’s more of a quiet leader, and we’re trying to make her more of an aggressive leader.”

She added that sometimes, Nash is too selfless and the team would like to see her “put the ball up” more often when opportunities present themselves.

The reigning 2A state champions and pride of the small village of Point Hope have gone up against and bested teams from higher levels of competition all season, and their 19-point margin of victory over the Maidens marked their fourth double-digit win over an out-of-state opponent. They have yet to fall to a team from the Lower 48 with an unblemished 4-0 record.

“It’s mostly confidence and knowing that you can beat them,” Nash said.

Young Eagles defend their nest

After putting up 63 points against Tikigaq in the opening round on Tuesday, West’s offense went into a bit of a slump in its next game and picked back up in its third. The Eagles were still able to emerge victorious on their home court for the second night in a row on Wednesday with a 40-25 win over Metlakatla thanks to a strong defensive effort.

The Eagles shut out the Miss Chiefs in the first quarter while going on a 10-0 run themselves. Even though the second quarter was much more competitive with Metlakatla actually outscoring West 12-11, the home team still took a 21-12 lead into the half.

Even though they only made 25% of their field goals, the high-volume-shooting Eagles made over half of their attempts from the charity stripe with 62 free throw percentage.

“We try to get volume shots and we do miss a lot of shots,” head coach Stanley Engel said. “We’re still trying to find ourselves. (We didn’t have) a lot of practices and are still getting the continuity because of all of the snow days. It’s been exceptionally hard this year to get our offense to catch up with where we’re at defensively.”

After not having a single player reach double figures in scoring against Metlakatla, the Eagles had pair of players account for over half of the team’s points with explosive offensive outings in a 51-41 win over Ronan. Senior guard Jordan Zackery led the team in scoring with a game-high and sophomore Tonya Karpow was not far behind with 15.

“Tonya plays really hard and does a really good job of rebounding and attacking the rim,” Engel said.

Impact of innovation

This year, the Alaska Airlines Classic has implemented the use of a shot clock as somewhat of a beta test to speed up the game and prevent teams from stalling as much.

Teams have 35 seconds to get a shot up that at least touch the rim. Following offensive rebounds, it resets to 25 seconds. If a team fails to get the ball at least to the rim in the specified time, they will incur a shot clock violation turnover.

Rock said that it had an adverse effect on her players in their narrow loss to West, but they were able to better adjust on the second day.

“I think they were kind of rushing it, and I just told them to run the offense,” she said.

Nash said some of the simple adjustments they made were to make sure they stayed calm and made faster passes. Rock added that they emphasized being aware of the time, looking for the open teammate quicker, and taking good shots and “not just throwing it up.”

Contrarily, Engel said that the shot clock has “never been a problem” for the Eagles because they always want to “get up shots and play fast.” They like to operate at a faster pace early in the season in particular because it helps them with their conditioning and getting in better shape for the long haul.

“As the season goes on and we have to slow the game down then we will, but for us, we want to play fast,” he said. “It’s neat to have it, and it’s really cool when you get a stop ... you get kids to buy into playing defense for 35 seconds.”

While he said it makes no difference for him and his team, he likes it because he says it “activates the fans and it activates the players.”

“I would be cool to see and I’d like it if we adopted it,” Engel said.

The West boys were already working with the shot clock in preparation for the tournament and not only enjoyed it but believe that they would thrive if it were permanently implemented in the Last Frontier.

“We’re faster and run the floor better than most teams,” Cook said. “We have a lot of athletes, and I feel like we would have the advantage with the shot clock.”

Amid the Eagles’ first-half scoring frenzy, the shot clock went out of commission temporarily, but despite the minor hiccup, they are still in favor of implementing it

“I love it and wish Alaska would adopt it as soon as possible,” Muehlenkamp said. “I think it would clean up our game and make it more fun for people. You still have some strategy there, but you make it fun, and we’re not having 8-minute possessions.”