Nome Nanooks host Redington Huskies
Two Nanook teams met the Redington Huskies Saturday in the first games of the season. The Nanook boys defeated the Wasilla team convincingly despite being short on players as only six were available to suit up. Still, they dominated their opponents by a score of 85 to 52.
Dawson Schaeffer scored 42 points to lead the Nanooks.
“For years and years I’ve kept track of who has the most points in a game and 42 by Uly Hall, back in about 1986, is the highest ever,” said Coach Patrick Callahan after the game. “It was against Seward, I think at the ACS tournament. It looks like we tied that today. I didn’t realize Dawson Schaeffer had 42 points, I thought maybe he had 27 or something like that.”
The Nanooks were hitting from outside. Schaeffer has six threepointers and Caden Hanebuth got three.
“That was fun,” said Coach Callahan. “We had six available players, we suited up every guy that had eligibility and ten practices that we could play. I was kind of hoping maybe we’d get down to four guys, just to have that memory, but we were able to finish with five.”
The Nanooks got some help from new faces. “Jade Green is a freshman and he played really well,” said Callahan. “Every guy had to play, they had to be ready to play. It’s a different mindset than when there’s 13 guys and four or five are tuned out because they don’t think they’re going to get in. It’s easier when they’re all in and ready to play because they know they’re going to play.”
Three key players wrestled at the state championships in Anchorage that day but now that the wrestling season is over, they’ll be able to join the basketball team. Stephan Anderson, Ethan Hannon and Elden Cross have wrestled all season and should be in great shape for hoops.
The Lady Nanooks played a close game with Redington and ended up losing 48 to 43. Lisa Okbaok is back in the line-up after a year off and scored 13 points. Brooke Anungazuk led the team with 18.
“They played well for their first time this season,” said Coach Joe Musich. “We’ve got some things they need to work on but overall what I’ve seen out of them during practice rather than games I see a lot of potential. We just didn’t execute well on our offense tonight.”
Next up is the Subway Showdown, January 2 through 4, 2020.