Wolverines enjoy success at Grace Christian

Published on February 25th, 2010

By VAN WILLIAMS

Nothing came easy for the Cordova boys basketball team on last week's road trip to Anchorage.

As if playing three games in three days wasn't brutal enough, the Wolverines were delayed some six hours on their way to town because of an avalanche on the Seward Highway. And then they had to face some of the stingiest defenses at the Class 3A level.

If there was ever a time to cave, that was it. But it didn't happen.

Cordova wrapped up its road trip with a 43-41 victory over Grace Christian on Saturday, one day after dropping a 37-32 decision to the same squad. Both contests were hard-fought and tight through the end, with defense being the name of the game.

"We were much sharper attacking Grace's zone and that made all the difference," Cordova coach Jason Boerger said of the game his team won.

Dane Meyer pumped in 13 points and Christian Brockert bagged a dozen, highlighted by a big 3-pointer he drilled that pushed Cordova's lead to four points late in the game.

Boerger also credited the steady play of point guard Seth Balint (nine points) for propelling the Wolverines to victory.

"We did a better job getting the ball into Eric Johnson inside and our penetration was there," he said. "Seth especially did a great job for us at running the offense and attacking their zone."

The victory improved Cordova's record to 15-5 overall and 5-3 in the Southcentral Conference.

"It was another great defensive effort for us and a great team win," Boerger said. "Grace is a very good team and if we meet up at the district tournament we know it will be a battle."

The Wolverines host league rival Seward this weekend.

Last week's road trip began with a 55-33 loss to nemesis Heritage Christian in a game that started nearly two hours late because the avalanche shut down the Seward Highway.

The delay added to an already long travel day for the Wolverines and it showed in the second half as Heritage Christian closed on a 37-18 run.

"We stalled out in the third quarter and ... in the fourth we took some big risks to try to force Heritage to cough the ball up and they took advantage of some easy scoring opportunities," Boerger said.

Cordova played Grace Christian the following night in a back-and-forth game that was even through three quarters. Brockert led the Wolverines on both sides of the ball, scoring 19 points and playing solid defense.

"Christian shot the ball well from outside and did a nice job on their big scorer Ron Francher," the coach said. "I felt like we played hard and our defensive effort was good. We were just too soft on offense and that ended up costing us the game."

Girls beat Grace twice

The Lady Wolverines kept the good times rolling all weekend, sweeping Grace Christian in a pair of road games last week.

Cordova won the first night 42-31 behind double-digit scorers Teal Webber (15) and Misa Webber (12). Dani Hess, Angie Kelly and Angela Beedle each added five points.

"Great game," coach Virginia Anderson said. "The Wolverines were in control of most of the game, but Grace never let up."

The Lady Wolverines were 9 of 11 from the foul line.

Cordova made it a clean sweep by prevailing 34-17 the next night in dominating fashion.

Misa Webber paced the team with 15 points.

"The weekend was a nice lead up to our homecoming games with the visiting Seward Seahawks," Anderson said.