Powered by four talented players from the Lower 48, the Monstars defeated the Eyak Tropics 100-78 in the championship game of the 2023 Iceworm Basketball Tournament last Saturday.
More than 700 fans packed Cordova High School Court to see a run-and gun offensive showcase and cheer loudly for seven slam dunks of every conceivable sort from the visitors.
Kwahmer Cedric poured in 33 points, LaQuarius Cotton added 32 points and Shian Bradshaw had 27 points. The trio finished with 90 of their team’s 100 points. And oh, by the way, they could shoot from long range too, knocking down a combined 11 three-pointers.
One had to admire the gallant effort by their opponents. Under the double elimination format, the Eyak Tropics had to play a game at 10:30 a.m. the same day, defeating the Jim Rats 49-45 to advance to the final. Led by Chris Pena with 23 points and Van Schumm with 19, they battled the Moonstars but were clearly worn down by the end of the 3:30 p.m. rematch.
Incidentally, the intriguing team names were created by the players themselves, the exception being the Jim Rats who wore nice blue and white jerseys purchased by longtime Cordova basketball booster Jim Ujioka, who was over from Valdez to cheer his squad on.
A total of 13 games were played over Wednesday, Feb. 2, through Saturday at the CHS court. All the games were refereed by Will Roemhildt and Craig Kuntz.
Sixty-five players on seven teams participated in this year’s revival of the Iceworm Classic, including numerous former CHS Wolverines. Christian Adams, former CHS standout and Alaska 2A Player of the Year, had 33 points for the Jim Rats in their 63-53 win over the Cordova Blues. He was the only other player to break the 30-point mark.
Louie Alber, CHS ’79, earned the distinction of being the oldest player in the tournament. Louie played on a team aptly named the Benchwarmers, appeared in two games and had one field goal for his effort.
Aaron Hanson, the volunteer tournament organizer and director, was instrumental in reviving the Iceworm Classic, and was given a well-deserved round of appreciative applause during post game ceremonies.
And I suspect I know who the Iceworm Committee will be calling when it is time to start planning for next year’s festival.
Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled the name of a team. It is Monstar, not Moonstar.
