Cordova girls strike gold in Nome

Published on January 22nd, 2010

By VAN WILLIAMS

After getting drubbed at home a week earlier, the Cordova girls basketball players went to the Nome Subway Shootout with a chip on their shoulder.

They were frustrated and took out their aggression on their opponents.

In the end, the Lady Wolverines left the old gold-rush town with high hopes after beating Point Hope, Bethel and Nome to win the tournament's championship trophy for the second time since 2004.

"The girls stuck gold in Nome," Cordova coach Virginia Anderson said. "This was a great tournament for us-excellent competition for game experience."

The Lady Wolverines opened the tournament with a 69-54 win over Point Hope, a Class 2A state semifinalist last year.

From there, they hung on to beat Bethel 47-44 before knocking off Nome 39-31 in the championship game.

"The girls really stepped up their defensive pressure and really worked together on offense," Anderson said of her overall impressions. "It will be nice coming off a challenging tournament to play in our own tipoff (tournament) this weekend."

Cordova's Misa Webber, Teal Webber and Angie Kelly each were selected to the all-tournament team.

In the first game, Angela Beedle got Cordova going in the right direction by scoring seven of the team's 18 points in the opening quarter. The Lady Wolverines finished with a 22-point fourth quarter.

"It was a nice first-round win," Anderson said.

Teal Webber drained two 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 18 points. Misa Webber had 14, Kelly eight and Dani Hess and Sandy Morrisett each had seven.

Against Bethel, Misa and Teal Webber combined for 24 points and Hess collected nine points and helped Cordova win the battle of the boards.

In the title tilt, Cordova pulled out the back-and-forth game against the host Nanooks, thanks to the aggressive play of Hess, who provided hustle and muscle.

"We played well on the defensive end to close the game," the coach said.

Misa Webber's dozen points paced the team. Teal Webber added nine, Hess had eight and others like Beedle and Kelly helped out in other ways.

Cordova boys finish second

Down but not out the Cordova boys battled back to make the championship game interesting, slicing a 23-point deficit down to seven. But they ran out of time.

Nome beat the Wolverines 59-51 in the boys title game of the Nome Subway Shootout, extending its 26-game home winning streak.

"It was a good tournament," Cordova coach Jason Boerger said. "We saw some real tough competition and were challenged. These are the type of games that teach you a lot about where you are at and what you still need to work on."

Cordova stud Christian Brockert led the Wolverines in scoring in all three games, including 23 in the title tilt against Nome.

Brocket and teammate Dane Meyer were the lone Wolverines selected to the all-tournament team.

Brocket averaged 23.7 points per game, highlighted by his season-high 32-point performance in the semifinals.

Cordova opened tournament play with a 51-48 victory over Bethel. Brockert scored 16 and Meyer chipped in 14.

In the semifinals, Cordova outlasted Point Hope 68-65 in overtime. Brockert and Meyer combined for seven of the team's 11 points in the extra session. Eric Johnson added 11 points and Seth Balint delivered eight points.

The loss to Nome in the championship game was the first of the year for Cordova (6-1).

"We have some real nice players and at times we looked real good," Boerger said, "but we have to get more physical and control the boards. We need to take care of the basketball better but showed we can play with the top teams in the state."