Athlete of the Week: 3 Lentfers, 3 state champions

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Sophie Lentfer, Sloan Lentfer and Luke Lentfer all play for the Grace Christian basketball program and are now all state champions.

Sophie and Luke are brother and sister and Sloan is their cousin, and all three are blessed with athletic ability and are putting it to good use.

“We’ve grown up really tight. Our families are super close, hanging out all the time. And so it’s definitely cool to be pulling in the same direction on the same team,” Luke Lentfer said.

The one thing that all three of the Lentfers share besides a last name is size — Sloan is 6′7″, Luke is 6′2″ and Sophie is nearly 6 feet tall. While they are all tall, they have vastly different games on the court. Sloan is more of low post scorer and rebounded. Luke is a scoring guard who makes quick decisions with the ball often ending with him at the free-throw line to complete a three-point play. Sophie is one of the taller people on her team but handles the ball-handling duties most of the time while also going inside to help out with rebounding as well.

Luke and Sloan are both seniors at Grace Christian and they both had a great 3A boys basketball state championship game. Luke had 12 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists while Sloan had 14 points and 13 rebounds, helping lead the Grace Christian Grizzlies to some revenge — beating the team they lost to last year in the championship game the Nome Nannooks.

“It’s pretty special,” said Sloan Lentfer, after winning. “Basketball is temporary, four years for high school anyways. To be able to do it with the group of guys we had ... this year our deal this year was ‘unbreakable,’ which is written on our chest and regardless of the outcome, we surrender the outcome, so it’s basketball but ultimately, it’s a brotherhood that we built.”

Sophie Lenter had a big game with 12 points, 13 rebounds and 4 assists to help the Grace Christian girls basketball program to their first title in program history.

“Both teams winning at the same time especially it being Luke’s last year, I think that is just a huge deal, like that we both got to experience that at the same time and celebrating together, I think that’s just, it was awesome” Sophie Lentfer said.

Sophie will now forever have bragging rights over her brother because technically she became a state champion before Luke did, as the girls won right before the boys took the floor.

As seniors, Luke and Sloan are going out on top after winning the championship but for Sophie, she is just a sophomore, so she has the chance to bring a couple more championships to the Lentfer name.

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