Thanks to a strong last week, the Chugiak boys basketball team will enter tonight's Cook Inlet Conference tournament as the third seed, said coach Orin Wear Sunday.

He said although the Mustangs ended with an 8-6 conference mark, tied with Bartlett, the team edged out the Golden Bears since the Anchorage team faced Chugiak with an ineligible player early in the schedule.

The Mustangs closed out their Cook Inlet Conference schedule with a convincing 61-49 win over second-ranked Dimond Saturday.

"We are fortunate. We are playing good basketball at the right time of the year," Wear said.

Led by a game-high 23 points from senior guard Dustin Theis, the Mustangs blew the game open with a 20-8 scoring surge in the second quarter.

Chugiak also got a good night from senior Josh Williams, with 16 points, and eight from junior Colby Mitchell.

Wear was pleased with the team's defense, which kept the Lynx to less than 50 points.

"That's the one thing that we can control every night," he said of the defense.

Wear said the game was a good example of what the Mustangs are capable of.

"Everybody fulfilled their role – they played like a team," he added.

The victory followed on the heels of victories over Service and South earlier in the week.

Chugiak opens the tournament against Service today.

The Lady Mustangs closed out the conference with two wins among three the last week, beating Service and South handily, before losing to Dimond, 38-33, Saturday.

Seniors Lexie Sayer and Emily Watzke have led Chugiak of late with the pair accounting for 25 of the team's 45 points during the Mustangs' win over Service to open the week.

Sayer followed up with a 19-point outing in Feb. 25th's win over South, with senior center Kasey Kavanaugh adding 13.

The team's multi-pronged scoring attack was missing in the contest with league-leading Dimond on Saturday, however, as neither team could maintain their characteristic offensive efforts.

Longtime Chugiak coach Tracy Adams said the contest was kept off kilter with a whopping 46 fouls called.

"We really couldn't get into any kind of flow with that many whistled. They (the officials) just didn't let the girls play," he said.

It was obvious that the Mustangs' shooting rhythm was off as well, with the squad hitting only eight of 55 shot attempts.

Adams said the team has set as their goal 54 shots per game.

"Oh, we had plenty of shots. We just could hit any of them," he said.

Watzke was the only athlete in double figures for either team, hitting 16 points.

Adams said the team did well in getting the ball into the paint but didn't convert.

"We had great post entry passes, but we couldn't hit a shot to save our lives," he added.

Together with the team's subpar shooting at the free throw line, as displayed by Watzke's 7-of-13 showing from the charity stripe and Adams was left flummoxed.

Overall, Chugiak shot 15 for 27 from the free throw line – for little better than 55 percent.

"It was just one of those nights," he said.

The loss was a slight hiccup as the team prepares to enter the tournament as the defending Region IV and State champions.

"Still, the bottom line is that we should have beaten them," Adams said.

They will face either Service or South in the first round of play.

This article published in The Alaska Star on Thursday, March 4, 2010.