SoHi girls place 3rd in San Diego

The Soldotna girls basketball team went 3-1 in a tournament held in San Diego, Calif. last week, finishing third out of eight teams.

“It was a great tournament and a great experience for the kids,” said Stars’ coach Mark Tuter. “The schools we played all had 2,000 to 3,000 kids attendance-wise.

“We had a lot of fun.”

On Dec. 26, the Stars opened the tournament by defeating El Cajon Valley, of San Diego, 53-18.

Dani Donaldson paced SoHi with 12 points while Paige Blackburn added eight and Karen Senette and Jessi Stenga scored seven apiece.

The Stars then fell, 47-46, to Kearny High School, of San Diego, on Dec. 27. Also owning a 3-1 record in the tourney, Kearny placed second due to their tight victory over Soldotna.

Mikala Smith — who was named to the all-tournament first team — led the Stars with 18 points while Stenga and Karen Duffy each added 10 points in the loss.

But SoHi rebounded on Thursday with a 61-59 win over Crawford High School, also out of San Diego.

Blackburn scored 18 points for the Stars, Duffy notched 12, Shelly Barker added 11 and Smith chipped in nine.

Soldotna then closed out the tournament by edging Oceanside High School (San Diego), 62-56, on Friday.

Blackburn led the Stars with 18 points.

Montgomery High School, which hosted the event, won the tournament with a record of 4-0.

“Mikala Smith played real well for four games,” Tuter said.

Aside from basketball, however, there was plenty to do in the area.

The SoHi girls checked out the San Diego Zoo, watched a University of California-Irvine women’s basketball game and spent about “16 hours” at Disneyland, where they rang in the new year on Sunday.