“We’ve had a group of seniors that have been working together since kindergarten,” said senior guard Josh Lorence after the Panthers and their fans celebrated Friday night’s 53-42 Aurora Conference Tournament championship win over Monroe Catholic. “This has been our dream ever since we were little kids.”
The girls, behind star guard Jubilee Sutherland, pulled a double championship for Glennallen over Monroe in the nightcap with a 45-34 victory.
Two of the boys seniors paced their win at a nearly packed West Valley High School gymnasium, as guard Cody Parmenter scored a game-high 18 points — half of them in the fourth quarter as the Panthers pulled away — and Lorence added 12.
“Our kids were pretty focused,” said fifth-year coach Jim Lorence, Josh’s father. “It’s been 40 years, is what I’ve been told, since Glennallen’s been to the state tournament.”
The region title for the boys is Glennallen’s first in published results dating to 1984. The Glennallen girls last won in 1984 and were runners-up in 2009 and 1997. Both teams were seeded first coming into the tournament.
Dozens of fans from the small town about 250 miles from Fairbanks near the corner of the Glenn and Richardson Highways — including four face-painted and shirtless boys — made the trip and made their presence known.
Both Monroe teams still have a chance to qualify to the upcoming Class 3A state tournament. At 6 tonight, the Rams boys will meet the winner of this morning’s Galena-Delta Junction matchup with second place and a berth to the state tourney on the line. At 7:45 p.m., the Monroe girls will clash with the survivor of this afternoon’s Valdez-Hutchison game.
In the boys contest, Glennallen was ahead just 29-28 with 3:30 left in the third quarter before breaking the game open with a 14-1 run. During that streak, Parmenter scored nine straight on three driving layups and a 3-pointer.
Josh Lorence said fitness and pressure defense played a role.
“We knew we were better conditioned. We just wanted to keep wearing them down,” he said. “We knew fourth quarter they’d run out of gas before us.”
The team wears warm-up shirts with the word “Together” on the back for a reason.
“We don’t have any one individual star that’s going to dominate a game, but if we play together with a lot of heart — that’s our other motto — we’ve got a chance to play with anyone,” coach Lorence said.
John Michaels led Monroe with 14 points. With the game virtually out of reach in the closing minutes, coach Frank Ostanik received a pair of technical fouls for arguing with officials.
In the girls game, Sutherland was contained for the first half, when Glennallen clung to a 16-13 lead.
But after Monroe tied the contest on a Demi Obermeyer triple, the Panthers outscored the Rams 14-5 the rest of the quarter and never looked back. Most of the points came in transition and Sutherland, a speedy 5-6 senior guard, led the onslaught with two 3-pointers and a three-point play.
“This season we’ve been in a lot of close game at halftime,” Sutherland said. “We’re a third-quarter team.”
It didn’t hurt that the Glennallen boys won a championship immediately before they took the court.
“We didn’t see the end of the game, but our coach came in and told us, and that gave us a little extra fire,” Sutherland said.
Glennallen struggled at last year’s state tournament but is more experienced this time around.
“We lost both of our games (in 2009) but this year we’re going to do better,” said Sutherland, who will surely be the focus of opposing defenses.
Sutherland led all scorers with 16 points. Senior teammate Sydnee Falkner added 13, including six in the final quarter.
Obermeyer, a sophomore, drained four treys and paced Monroe with 14 points.
Contact staff writer Matias Saari at 459-7591.
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