Kodiak Bears take second win of season

Basketball hoop. (Photo by Tom Woodward / Flickr)

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

The Kodiak varsity boys’ basketball team, the Bears, is mid-season and working toward qualifying for the state tournament. They played Kenai on Friday and Saturday.

KMXT followed up with the team’s coach after the weekend’s games.

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The gym was packed – which Coach David Anderson says isn’t unusual for a Friday night – and that weekend the Bears got their second win of the season.

“Friday night’s game was a great game, a close game. Saturday’s game we ended up winning by 17 points I think it was. So, if they win, then you gotta make adjustments just like their coach will do. We didn’t make too many adjustments for Saturday night’s game ‘cause of winning on Friday… We threw some other kids in there, and they did great, and they adjusted well to what was going on, and the kids shot a lot better.”

There were some Kenai athletes at the game who towered above the Kodiak players.

“And we have to adjust to that. We have a couple of kids. Wesley Walker – just a real hard nose player out there. He can probably guard anybody in the state, doesn’t matter how tall they are.”

The athletes can also change their approach depending on the other team’s advantages, like height.

“This kind of team like that, you can be more physical with them, and that’s what we try to do. Touch ‘em a little bit more in the game, and be a little more physical … and we work on rebounding a tremendous a lot during the week, ‘cause we know if we’re getting out-rebounded, we’re gonna get beat  bad.”

Anderson says the Bears now have three wins to 12 losses overall, and have 9 games left.

“You know, this time of the year, we’ve got them in such great shape, the only thing we worry about is the mental part of the game right now and making sure that they’re doing the things that we’ve designed for them that we think is gonna be the best for them to play, that they’re not making those mistakes down the stretch.”

He says if Kodiak is successful at regional games, they’ll qualify for the state tournament.

The Bears play against Soldotna tonight, which could get them to 3 in 5 for the region if they win.

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