Girls Varsity Basketball
“Away Games vs Eielson”
Lucy Selanoff Ends Up with the Ball, Photo courtesy of Joe Prax
Courtesy of VHS Coaches – The Valdez Girls Basketball Team hit the road once again! They traveled to Fairbanks to play the Eielson Ravens for a weekend of games.
Friday, January 28, 2022: (Valdez 59 – Eielson 27)
The Girls got out to a quick start on Friday night and lead 15-5 at the end of the first quarter. Eielson battled back and dwindled the Buccaneer lead to only 3 points at halftime, 21-18. The Valdez girls made some adjustments and came out winning the third quarter and then played their best quarter of basketball. They outscored Eielson 23 – 3 in the 4th quarter and posted a win of 59 – 27.
Scoring was led by Kylie Gilbert with 17 points and Ambrosia Woodgate with 12 points. Kelsey Prax added 8 points and Lucy Selanoff 7 points. Lily Brown added 5 points, Katarina Taylor and Momoe Togaga’e each added 4 points and Carsyn Hinkle had 2 points.
Girls Varsity – Bucs Defense Stops Eielson, Photo courtesy of Joe Prax
Saturday, January 29, 2022: (Valdez 53 – Eielson 21)
Saturday, the girls got off to a slow start as they worked on some offensive adjustments. At half time the score was 19-10. The girls once again came out strong in the second half and won the game 53-21.
Kylie Gilbert had 13 points and Lily Brown had 12 points. Kylie Gilbert added 5 steals and 4 assists. It was Lily’s best offensive and defensive game of the season! Carsyn Hinkle and Lucy Selanoff each had 8 points and Carsyn led the team with 4 rebounds.. Kelsey Prax and Momoe Togaga’e each had 6 points and Kelsey added 4 assists.
A big thank you to Jennifer Watson for cooking the all the teams dinner on Saturday night in Eielson. The taco’s were delicious!
Next week the girls will travel to Seward for the Seahawk Classic Basketball Tournament and some JV games. The Varsity Girls will play Bethel on Thursday at 3:00 pm.
Boys Varsity Basketball
VHS Varsity Boys Basketball Wrap-Up [January 28 – 29]
Alan Watson, Photo Courtesy of Joe Prax
Courtesy of VHS Coaches – A second consecutive weekend of Aurora Conference basketball led the Buccaneers to Eielson Air Force Base to take on the Eielson Ravens, who entered the series with a 2-6 record for the season. The Bucs were heavy favorites going into the games and easily recorded two 30+ point blowout victories.
Friday, January 28th: Valdez 80, BEHS 44
Un-accustomed to watching the games via streaming as opposed to the sidelines, this writer spent much of the first three quarters of Friday’s game looking for the “better basketball” filter. Knowing the game plan, type of defensive intensity, and offensive efficiency that is expected, it wasn’t translating over Facebook.
Despite less-than-stellar play early on, the Bucs were clearly the superior team on the court and took a 32-19 advantage into the intermission. The two teams each netted 19 in the third quarter, resulting in a 51-38 Buccaneer lead entering the final stanza. Perhaps some of the road-wariness wore off in the fourth quarter, as the Bucs exploded for 29 points in the quarter while holding the Ravens to a mere 6 points en route to a lopsided 80-44 victory.
Payton Gage led the Bucs with 24 points, including 19 after the half and 13 in the fourth quarter. Dennis Mott controlled the inside throughout the games, utilizing a variety of inside moves and offensive rebounds to net 22 points. Zak Rissman and Nick Alfaro each chipped in 10 points.
Saturday, January 29th: Valdez 61, BEHS 27
Similar to the previous weekend, the Saturday contest yielded much the same result but with less offensive firepower. The Bucs were never in any true danger of losing the contest, as they held the Ravens to single-digit scoring each quarter [6, 8, 5, and 8] while at least doubling their offensive point total [13, 17, 15, and 16] as they coasted to a 61-27 thrashing of the Ravens.
Defensive pressure improved Saturday, and the Ravens were ill-equipped to deal with the aggressive half-court trapping defense employed by the Bucs.
Dennis Mott dominated the interior early and often on Saturday as he led the Bucs in scoring with 23 points. Payton Gage netted 11 and Dillow Fowler and Allen Watson each contributed 8.
Notes: The weekend wins extended the Buccaneer win streak to 8 straight and improved their record to 9-1 overall and 4-0 in the Aurora Conference.
Next Game: The Bucs next travel to Seward to participate in the 2022 Seahawk Classic Basketball Tournament on February 3rd – 5th. The tournament is a 4-team round-robin style format that includes the Bucs, Seward Seahawks, Bethel Warriors, and Ninilchik Wolverines.
Girls JV Basketball
“Away Games vs Eielson”
Mya Christofferson, Photo courtesy of Joe Prax
Courtesy of VHS Coaches – The JV Girls hit the road to play the Eielson Ravens for their first set of
games this year. They were missing 2 JV players and their Coach due to illness, so some Varsity Players filled in and Retired Valdez Boys Coach Dan Eide, took on the coaching duties for the weekend.
Friday, January 28, 2022: (Valdez 51 – Eielson 13)
The girls hit the court eager to play some basketball. They ran the floor and force Eielson turnovers and led 22-2 at half time. They continued their dominance in the second half and held Eielson to only 11 points in the half. Carlie VanBuskirk had 14 points, Momoe Togaga’e had 10 points, Mya Christoffersen had 7 points, Lily Brown had 6 points; Carsyn Hinkle, Kelsey Prax, and Izzy Kizer added 4 points each and Marcedes Taylor had 2 points. The girls grew as a team and showed vast improvement each quarter of the game.
Izzy Kaiser, Photo courtesy of Joe Prax
Saturday, January 29, 2022: (Valdez 42 – Eielson 3)
On Saturday, once again, the Buccaneer defense held the Eielson Raven scoreless in the first half and their offense scored 23 points. In the second half they continued to run the floor and force turnovers. The final score was 42 – 3. Carlie VanBuskirk lead all scorers with 15 points, Carsyn Hinkle and Momoe Togaga’e added 7 points, Lily Brown had 6 points, Izzy Kizer had 4 points, and Marcedes Taylor added 3 points.
It was great to see the girls finally get some games this season. They were fun to watch and showed great improvement from the beginning of the season. A big thank you to Coach Dan Eide for stepping in and helping the girls!
Next week the girls will travel to Seward for some JV games with Seward, while the Varsity team plays in the 2022 Seahawk Classic Basketball Tournament.
Boys JV Basketball
Valdez JV Boys Vs. Eielson
Courtesy of Joe Prax
Courtesy of VHS Coaches – It has been a long challenging season for the JV Bucs. Since the beginning of
December when the season began, Valdez has gone nearly two entire months with no games due to cancellations from the global covid pandemic as well as freak weather storms hitting the interior of Alaska.
It was both a physical as well as a mental challenge for the guys to stay focused and work hard until this weekend when they were finally able to get their first game action of the season against the Eielson Ravens.
After a bus trip to Eielson Air Force Base that took over 8 hours, Valdez had to rush to the floor practically straight off the bus to get ready for game time.
As might be expected from the circumstances, Valdez came out flat to begin the game. Careless possessions on offense, and confusion on defense, had Eielson take an early lead. Once the nerves had settled down for Valdez, a hot shooting performance from beyond the arc had them take a 27-15 lead at the half. The Ravens came out with great energy in the third quarter and managed to cut Valdez’s lead to four points, however the
Bucs weathered the storm and were able to extend their lead and ended up with their first win of the season in a 46-34 victory. Romen Weber lead all scorers with 15 points.
In Saturday’s matinee headliner, both teams came out of the gates with great focus and energy. Although Valdez scored the first goal with a nice 3 pointer from Logan Weichert, some careless defensive rotations had the Eielson Ravens jump out to a 14-9 lead after the first quarter. In the second quarter however, Valdez’s defense was firing on all cylinders. They managed to hold the Ravens to just 2 points in the quarter while
scoring 17 of their own en route to a 26-16 halftime lead.
The Bucs entered the 3rd quarter with great intensity and focus, and continued to build on their lead with a 19 point quarter. A Stifling defensive effort had the Bucs cruising to their second win of the year with a final score of 57-36. It was a great all around offensive game for Valdez as every player on the roster entered the scoring column lead by Gavin Morris with 17.
Next week Valdez will be traveling to Reddington High School to take part in their annual Reddington JV Tournament.
Nordic Skiing
Buccaneer Nordic Skiing
Fairbanks Ski Cross
January 29, 2022
Blake Morrison
Courtesy of VHS Coaches – The Buccaneer Nordic Ski team traveled to Fairbanks this weekend to race in the Fairbanks Nordic Ski Club’s Ski Cross. A Ski Cross was a new type of race for our team to compete in.
The 1000 meter sprint course featured many different obstacles to test the skiers’ ability, such as slalom gates, bars to duck under, and 3 jumps as the skiers raced around the fast sprint course. Each skier got to race the course twice racing in heats of 6-8 skiers per heat. This was a fun break from our normal distance ski races but that didn’t stop the Bucs from taking the opportunity to familiarize themselves with our regional and state race course that is coming up in a few short weeks.
Ezekiel Duncan
Our team was able to join in a time trial with schools from our region competing against other skiers in a 5.2k skate technique time trial. This was a valuable experience getting to preview part of our upcoming racecourse. While also racing against great competition, experiencing the difference in skiing on such cold snow, and the importance of having the right wax. Now the Buccaneer skiers have next weekend off and can focus on the next 2 weeks improving our technique and endurance in preparation for regionals.
Rafe Caruthers