Cordova boys give ACS the broom

Published on January 14th, 2010

By VAN WILLIAMS

Anchorage Christian School gave the Cordova boys fits on the basketball court last season.

But now the Wolverines are biting back.

A year later, they are older, taller and better equipped. And last week they extracted some revenge against ACS on their home turf.

Cordova used a second-half rally to win Friday's game 54-41 before unleashing a 60-39 beatdown in Saturday's finale, giving the Wolverines a 2-0 start in the always tough Southcentral Conference.

"I was real pleased with the energy we showed this weekend," Cordova coach Jason Boerger said. "We were very aggressive on defense and pressured them full court most of the weekend. We have a lot of guys who can score the basketball and now it's a matter of getting comfortable with who should shoot."

In the first game, Cordova used a 19-8 run in the third quarter to pull away for good, turning a 20-18 deficit into a 37-28 advantage. Sophomore Keith Nolan scored five and junior Christian Brockert added eight of his 18 in the quarter to fuel the charge.

Junior Dane Meyer added 14 points and junior Eric Johnson chipped in six points and 10 rebounds.

Early on, though, it was a much different story. The Wolverines came out aggressive and were jacking up shots from all over the court.

"It looked and felt like our first game of the year, all over again," said Boerger, whose team was coming off a three-week break.

The second half was much better, highlighted by a dominating third quarter and the play of Meyer.

"Dane played a great game with his heart and aggressiveness," the coach said. "He is not just a scorer, but an aggressive defender, rebounder and important leader on our team. He is having a great start to the season."

On the second night, Cordova led from start to finish to win easily. Brockert led the way with a game-high 20 points while teammates Meyer (10) and Seth Balint (10) were also in double figures.

"Seth played a great game for us," Boerger said. "He is a guy who sometimes gets overlooked on our team because what he does for us is usually less visible.

"He is a strong point guard and good defender. He has a lot of nice options on offense so he doesn't always get as many looks, but he was very efficient."

And of course, Brockert-the team's leading scorer-did his thing.

"Christian played a much better overall game, attacking the basket more frequently than Friday and showing why he is a difficult player to defend."

On the girls side, Cordova didn't fare as well as Anchorage Christian swept both games behind all-state player Debbiey Simmers.

Simmers, a player-of-the-year candidate, scored 11 points in Friday's 57-25 win and then collected 21 points in Saturday's 43-18 triumph.

"I could definitely tell that ACS was coming off a competitive tournament already playing six games to our two against Homer," Cordova coach Virginia Anderson said.

In Friday's game, Misa Webber led the Wolverines with seven points and Teal Webber added five. Angela Beedle and Angie Kelly each scored four points.

On the second night, Teal Webber pumped in nine points in a losing effort.

"We have a lot of work on in the weeks to come," Anderson said. "We have two tournaments to play before our next conference game."