Cordova Junior High players do well on challenging road trip

The Cordova Junior High basketball teams played well on a three-day road trip to Seward and Anchorage. The girls team won four out of five games, while the boys went two and three.

Cordova’s girls topped the Seward Silvers in both A and B games on Nov. 3.  Final scores were not available, but Cali Sjostedt led the A team with eight points and Jacey Pallas was top scorer with 10 points in the B game.

The Cordova boys were a bit shorthanded, traveling with only 10 players total.  Seward won the A game 42-20 and the B game 21-19. Coach Doug Carroll described the Seward A squad as “the best team we have played this year.”

Chrisbelle Pena led Cordova A team with 10 points.

The Cordova B team spotted Seward a 13-0 lead, and then came back to make it close.  Lizandro DeLeon Rodrigues was top scorer for Cordova B’s with 10 points.

In Anchorage, the Cordova A girls fell to Grace 25-7, but topped the Grizzly B squad 22-7.  Leading scorers were Gwethlyn Jacob with all seven points in the A game, and Alana Esguerra with eight points in the B game.

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The Cordova boys fell to Grace 26-19 in the A game after winning the B game 31-21.

“We lost two kids to injuries and were down to only eight players in the A game, but we played a really good game and our ability to play defense made it much closer than I thought it would be,” Carroll said.

Mar-Louis Augustin led the Cordova A scoring with seven points; Rodriques again led the B squad, this time with 15.

On Nov. 5, both the girls and boys played combined-squad games against Lumen Christi.  Marissa Griffith led the Cordova girls with eight points in a 22-6 victory; Quin Muma and Rodrigues topped the scoring for the Cordova boys with 8 points apiece in a 36-20 win.

“Lumen had a big 6-foot-2 guy who was very good,” said Carroll. “He had 16 points and must have blocked about 10 or 12 shots.”

Cordova’s two biggest players did not make the trip.

The Cordova squads travel to Valdez on Nov. 11-12 to wrap up their season in the Valdez Junior High Tournament.

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Dick Shellhorn
Dick Shellhorn is a lifelong Cordovan. He has been writing sports stories for the Cordova Times for over 50 years. In his Cordova Chronicles features, he writes about the history and characters of this Alaska town. Alaska Press Club awarded Shellhorn first place for Best Humor column in 2016 and 2020, and third place in 2017 and 2019. He also received second place for Best Editorial Commentary in 2019. Shellhorn has written two books about Alaska adventures: Time and Tide and Balls and Stripes. Reach him at dshorn44@gmail.com.