Short-handed Lady Whalers continue to shine

Published on February 11th, 2010

By VAN WILLIAMS

If you looked up the word courage in the dictionary, you wouldn't find the Barrow girls basketball team.

But you should.

The Lady Whalers continue to impress despite having a roster ravished by injuries and suspensions. They did it again last weekend by winning the three-day Whaler Invitational with only eight players.

"The team seems to look different every week," cracked Barrow boss Ryan Myers, a Class 3A coach-of-the-year candidate.

"We keep finding a way and that's what's important," he added. "Whenever they get down they always seem to find a way to find that extra level and find a way to get it done. I was real proud of them. They played real hard. They certainly deserved the victory."

Led by tournament MVP Jaleen Simmonds, the Lady Whalers beat Unalaska and Skyview before disposing of Nome 56-41 in Saturday's championship game. Simmonds scored a team-high 18 points in the final.

Barrow outscored Nome 25-8 in the fourth quarter, thanks in part to 8-of-12 shooting from the foul line.

Barrow also beat Skyview (45-26) and Unalaska (65-11). Against Skyview, Simmonds scored 14 points on the strength of four 3-pointers. Against Unalaska, Simmonds bagged 19 while Kivvaq Nungasak scored 17 and Hillary Lowry added 11.
Nungasak was another Barrow on the all-tournament team.

"She provided a lot of quality ball-handling and good defense," her coach said.

Senior Olivia Kim was also picked all-tournament for the first time in her career.

"It was nice for Olivia to get recognized because she doesn't score much but she's our best defender, rebounder, screener, and she rarely gets recognized," Myers said.

Barrow boys lose finals

Whalers boys coach Jeremy Arnhart said his team didn't play championship caliber defense, and that's why Barrow didn't beat Nome in Saturday's championship game of the Whaler Invitational.

Nome scored early and often en route to a 66-54 win, thanks to 24 points from tournament MVP Jeremy Head. However it was the play of Mason Evans (18) and Tim Sullivan (13) that made the difference.

"We can't have those other guys scoring as much as they did," Arnhart said. "We allowed them to score too easily."

Nome also hit nine 3-pointers, with eight coming in the first half when the Nanooks carried a 35-20 lead into halftime.

And although the Whalers did a better job in the second half, they couldn't overcome the hole they dug themselves in the first half.

Albert Gerke pumped in 19 points and Tyler Adams chipped in 12 in a losing effort for Barrow.

"We knew they were a quality opponent, one of the best, if not the best, in 3A," Arnhart said. "When you play those good teams you're going to have to defend very well.

"What that'll teach us is that we're going to have to defend better. We're going to work on that in practice (because) we can't beat them if we play like that."

Gerke and Tyler were joined by teammates Daniel Thomas and Bradley Nashaknik on the Whaler Invitational all-tournament team.

Earlier in the event, Barrow beat Unalaska 67-47 behind all-stars Thomas (21 points), Nashaknik (11) and Gerke (11).