Sports

Continuing their winning streak, the Unalaska boys basketball team took the number one spot at the Kotzebue Klassic this weekend.

The Raiders had a strong start, vanquishing the Noorvik Bears 70-50 on Thursday. On Friday, they had another decisive win against Point Hope, with the final score being 63-42. They wrapped up their performance at the Anchorage tournament by defeating Kotzebue, the host team, in a 64-38 game.

Meanwhile, the Lady Raiders took home the tournament’s sportsmanship award. They faced off against Point Hope, the top-ranked 2A team on Thursday. While the girls ultimately lost the game 63-21, Coach Kevin Ley says that the Lady Raiders gave a strong performance in the first half.

Unalaska’s basketball teams are competing in the Kotzebue Klassic this weekend, and the boys came away from their first match with a win.

The Raiders faced off against Noorvik, beating the Bears 70-50 at the Anchorage tournament. That puts them on a winning streak after last week’s victory against Nikolaevsk.

The Lady Raiders did not fair so well. Point Hope beat them in a 63-21 game.

Both the boys and girls teams will play Kotzebue this evening.

Local fans packed the Unalaska City School gymnasium this weekend for a rare set of Raider home games.

On Friday night, the boys basketball team destroyed the Nikolaevsk Warriors. The Raiders started strong and then maintained a wide lead through the game, beating the Warriors 82 to 25. Andrew Seman was the game’s high scorer, with 24 points. On Saturday, the Warriors had to forfeit to the Raiders due to two injuries on their team. The two schools then scrimmaged, with some Raider players joining the Warriors to boost their numbers. The Unalaska team beat the combined team 69 to 38. Andrew Seman was again the top scorer, with 27 points.

For the Unalaska City School basketball teams, the Donlin Gold Classic resulted in a series of heartbreaks.

Coming off their narrow loss against Bethel on Thursday, the boys team struggled in the two remaining matches of the tournament. The Raiders faced off against the Nome Nanooks on Friday, losing 31 to 47. On Saturday, the Raiders managed to rally some in their match versus the Galena Hawks. Unalaska led the game at halftime and managed to keep the game close through the third period. However, Galena gained control in the final minutes, ultimately beating Unalaska by nine points. The final score was 49 to 58.

After travel delays, the Unalaska Boys and Girls basketball teams made it to Bethel yesterday to compete in the Donlin Gold Classic tournament.

The boys team put up a tough fight against the Bethel Warriors last night, ultimately losing the match 39 to 43. However, the Raiders did rally during the fourth quarter, shrinking Bethel’s 16-point lead to just four points in the final minutes of the game. JJ Fernandez was the Raiders’ top scorer, with 13 points.

The Lady Raiders also lost against Bethel yesterday evening. The final score was 46 to 30. The team struggled to maintain control of the ball, and there was a total of 31 turnovers during the match. Cassandra Morrisett led the team with 10 points.

After solid wins at their home tournament last weekend, the Unalaska Raiders lost three in a row this weekend at the Dimond Prep Shoot-out in Anchorage.

In the last game of the tournament the Raiders faced off against the Kenai Cardinals.  The final score was 56-27.

Coach Jim Wilson says the kids played well against some of the biggest and best schools in the state.  

"The Dimond Prep Shoot-out is probably the most prestigious, if not, one of the most prestigious tournaments in the state.  So, for our kids to come in and compete in a tournament with schools ranging from a thousand to two thousand kids was a tremendous experience for our kids.  And they certainly got better as the week went along."

South Anchorage High School beat Unalaska in the second day of the Alaska Prep Shoot-Out.

The final score was 72 to 43. The Raiders boys basketball team led in the first quarter, but then South came up from behind in the second half and held their lead.

JJ Fernandez was Unalaska’s high scorer, with 23 points.

The tournament wraps up tomorrow at Dimond High School. The Raiders will be facing off against the loser of tonight’s match between Ketchikan and Kenai. That game kicks off at 1:45pm.

Unalaska Raider boys basketball team lost to Monroe Catholic in the first round of the Dimond Prep Shootout Tournament.  

The final score was 34-68. Monroe Catholic has not lost a game this season, and prior to this match, the closest score against their team was a 40-point split against North Pole.  

Raider Boys closed the game strong, scoring 21 of their 34 total points in the second half.  

The Raiders will goon to play either ACS or South High School tomorrow at 2:45pm.

The Unalaska Raiders men’s varsity basketball team cleaned up over the weekend against the Cook Inlet Eagles.

The team won games on both Friday and Saturday evenings by 20-point margins.  Both games started with slow first halves, but picked up in the third and fourth quarters.  Friday’s game ended 54-34 and Saturday’s game wrapped up 52-33.

Senior Andrew Seman and sophomore JJ Fernadez were high scorers in both matches. 

The team will compete in Dimond this weekend against Monroe Catholic High School

Unalaska's high school basketball season kicked off on Friday with a home game against Cook Inlet Academy. 

Junior Varsity Coach Steve Flannery said before the game that the players were excited to get out on the court and show off their skills for a home crowd.

“The kids are excited to have a big crowd there and show what 27 practices worth of work has brought them to.”

Flannery says he expects their hard work to pay off. 

“I think they’re poised to have a really good season.  They should definitely be competitive this weekend and going forward for the rest of the season.”

This weekend, Mandy Andersen completed the longest bike ride of her life.

Last week, KUCB's Alexandra Gutierrez caught up with her to talk about the Team Livestrong Challenge.