Homer Alaska - Sports

The Homer girls basketball program has traveled a long road this season, the kind of road that tests more the resolve of a team than the athletic prowess. a

The road continued last weekend with losses against Soldotna, 66-18, and Wasilla, 67-10.

"It takes such an emotional and physical toll on these kids, and it's so hard to keep going, but they have a good work ethic and they come at it strong," said Head Coach Deb Lowney. "It's frustrating for them. They know that they're getting some easy shots and the fact that they aren't falling is really frustrating."

The Ms take on Kenai at 6 tonight.

Leading up to the match up with the Kards, Lowney has continued to drill her team and trying to overcome the bad habits that come with a tough season.

"This week we're going to do a lot with just ball handling and passing and how to get open so we can move the ball around. What I think I saw in the video was a lot of the kids literally did not want to touch the ball," said Lowney.

The Mariners are going through the toughest part of the 2010 schedule against teams from much larger schools with much deeper pockets and longer running basketball programs. With Homer bringing in less than 400 students, it has become difficult to compare the Ms with 4A schools across the board, when technically Homer enrollment puts the Ms more directly in 3A.

"We were definitely competing at the 3A level and realistically if you look at the numbers at our school those are the schools we should be playing against. Right now we're going against big schools with traditions of good programs," said Lowney.

Friday:

Homer: 2 10 5 1 – 18

Soldotna: 19 18 14 15 – 66

Homer: Elissa Tutt 2 0 2-3 6; : Liz Needham 0 0 0-2 0; Alecia Stafford 0 0 2-7 2; Caryn Cordova 1 0 2-2 4; Melissa Wood 2 0 0-0 6.

Fouled Out: None

Soldotna: Lydia Forbes 3 0 0-0 6; Karen Senette 1 1 0-0 5; Kaili Sholin 1 0 0-0 2; Jenna Jensen 2 0 0-0 4; Sierra Ackerman 2 3 1-2 14; Kelsey VanAntwerp 1 0 0-0 2; Jesse Duke 1 1 0-1 5; Megan Hardy 7 0 0-2 14; Kaillee Skiold 2 0 4-6 8; Kaitlyn Barkman 3 0 0-0 6.

Fouled Out: None

Saturday:

Homer: 0 3 3 4 – 10

Wasilla: 24 17 16 10 – 67

Homer: Liz Needham 0 0 1-6 1; Alecia Stafford 2 0 0-1 4; Jesse Erickson 0 0 0-1 0; Caryn Cordova 1 0 0-0 2; Melissa Wood 0 0 3-4 3.

Fouled Out: None

Wasilla: Ashlyn Frizzelle 1 0 0-0 2; Hilary Apangolook 1 0 0-0 2; Alexis Imor 3 0 2-2 8; Kyla Dinkel 0 2 0-2 6; Carle Naczi 5 1 0-1 13; Leisl Brown 0 0 4-4 4; Katie Bialka 1 0 0-0 2; Celeste Colegrove 7 0 0-0 14; Jillian Troisi 4 0 0-0 8; Kelsey Cottle 4 0 0-0 8.

Fouled Out: None