4A state hoops: SoHi boys, girls finish 5th after semifinal losses

In a tournament full of upsets, the Class 4A boys state basketball championships have been anything but predictable.

That is why the crowd Friday at the Alaska Airlines Center saw No. 5-seeded Soldotna playing No. 8 Ketchikan for the right to move on to Saturday’s state title game.

In the end, the bottom-seeded Kings continued to prove everybody wrong with a thrilling 53-48 victory over Soldotna to advance to the final, where they will face the Dimond Lynx.

SoHi, meanwhile, had to settle for fifth place in the tournament after losing Saturday’s third-place contest 62-38 to the Colony Knights. The fifth-place result ties SoHi’s best finish at state with the program’s most recent trip in 2010.

Stars junior Jersey Truesdell continued to make a case for tournament MVP with 30 points, torching Ketchikan with 5-for-6 shooting from 3-point land and five rebounds. SoHi’s next highest scorer was senior David Michael with five points. Truesdell tallied 31 points in Thursday’s quarterfinal win over West Anchorage.

Ketchikan, however, had the moves when it mattered most. The brother tandem of Marcus and Chris Lee notched 16 and 19 points, respectively, and it was a dunk late in the third quarter by Chris that helped spark the late heroics for the Kings, according to Truesdell.

“One play on the high school level like that dunk, can just suck the air out of one team,” he said. “And it can fill up another team.”

SoHi led 35-28 and was seemingly in command when Lee rose up after a fall to collect a rebound and slam home a dunk with 1:39 left in the third quarter, sending the crowd into a frenzy and injecting some much-needed energy into the Kings.

The slam was followed just 30 seconds later by a 3-pointer from Jake Taylor, cutting SoHi’s lead to 35-33.

Soldotna head coach Nolan Rose attributed the fourth-quarter comeback by Ketchikan to Soldotna’s inexperience in playing a do-or-die game. No Soldotna boys squad had played in a state contest in nine years prior to Thursday’s opener against West.

“We aren’t quite ready to execute the way we needed to in the fourth quarter of a big game like this,” Rose said. “In a tense environment, we got away from doing the things that got us that lead.

“Just anxious, I think, and that cost us an opportunity to get the win.”

Finishing second at the Northern Lights Conference tournament held on their home floor gave Soldotna the fifth seed at the big dance, and the Stars made it count with a narrow victory over the Eagles on Thursday.

While making it to the state semis could be seen as a major success for the Stars after years of missing it altogether, Truesdell said the moment was bittersweet.

“As competitors, you just feel … what could we have done better,” Truesdell said. “But as a person, you’re really proud of the things you’ve done.

“Our summer was full of working hard to get to this point. No one saw us coming.”

Ketchikan got off to a blazing start, reaching a 13-2 lead less than six minutes into the game with the Lee brothers tallying 11 points of that run, but Truesdell and company began to heat up as well. Truesdell hit consecutive 3’s to rapidly claw back out of the hole and SoHi took a 15-14 lead early in the second quarter.

The Stars led 24-23 at halftime, thanks to an off-balance corner lob by Truesdell at the buzzer that somehow found the net for three points.

Timely offense and plenty of defensive stops defined the third quarter for SoHi, which got points from Truesdell, Tyler Morrison and Ray Chumley in spurts. A jumper by Chumley with 3:25 left in the quarter pushed the lead to 35-28, but the Ketchikan rally was coming.

Lee’s dunk and Taylor’s trey was the match that lit the flame. Kristian Pihl buried a trey to cut the gap to 39-38 with 6:03 left in the fourth quarter, than Taylor knocked down another 3 with 4:40 left for a 41-39 edge for the Kings.

It was part of a 9-0 Ketchikan run that spelled doom for SoHi, which hit a scoring slump of five minutes before Truesdell snapped the scoreless skid with a jumper with 1:43 to go. By that time, Ketchikan led 44-41.

Truesdell was tagged with his fourth foul with just over four minutes left in the game, which also did not help matters, although he conceded he wasn’t going to change his style of attack.

“When you’re down four or five with three minutes left, it’s always go time,” he said. “I’m not going to slow down with four fouls … you have to go or else you’re going to lose.”

The Kings sunk six free throws over the final 69 seconds of game time to seal the semifinal victory.

In Saturday’s third-place clash with Colony, Truesdell pumped in 21 points, shooting 4 for 12 from beyond the arc and grabbing four rebounds as well. Morrison added six points for the Stars.

The Knights got big days from star players Patrick McMahon and Sullivan Menard, who poured in 19 points apiece.

Colony flaunted their muscle in the second quarter, outscoring SoHi 19-2 to grab a 36-14 halftime lead, helped by 51 percent shooting in the first half.

Dimond girls 46, Soldotna 36

The Soldotna Stars faced a behemoth and lost Friday in the Class 4A state semifinals, falling 46-36 to the top-seeded Dimond Lynx.

The Stars ultimately finished fifth overall at state after losing 56-49 to Chugiak in Saturday’s third-place tilt.

But Friday’s semifinal against the 20-2 Lynx, who harbor the three-time 3A Girls Player of the Year in Alissa Pili, the Stars showed that they belonged in the big dance.

“There’s a lot of pride to have there, especially considering the size of our school and having to play three straight Anchorage schools,” said head coach Kyle McFall said. “Just to send this group of seniors off on a high note was really important. We’ve kind of built a program around them and they’ve helped establish a culture.”

SoHi kept it close throughout and had it tied up at 32 apiece with six minutes remaining, but the Lynx used one last surge to distance themselves and stave off the Stars.

Pili finished with 22 points and 18 rebounds for Dimond, including a 10-for-11 day from the free throw stripe, while fellow senior teammate Dshanna Schuster notched eight points.

Senior Aliann Schmidt rattled in 14 points for SoHi and junior Ituau Tuisaula had 10 points and nine rebounds. Overall, the Lynx won the battle on the glass 34 to 24 over the Stars.

The disappointment of coming within 10 points of a berth to Saturday’s championship game was apparent for the players, but the feeling of accomplishment also resonated with the team.

“We’re a small 4A school and we haven’t gotten to third place in a while,” Tuisaula said. “That’s something we’re looking forward to.”

After playing to a 56-49 loss with Dimond in the regular season, McFall said the team decided to switch some things up, namely do everything possible to contain Pili.

With sophomore Drysta Crosby-Schneider tasked to guard the daunting Pili for much of the contest, the final stat line for Dimond’s star was commendable. McFall praised Crosby-Schneider’s defensive stands on Pili throughout the 32 minutes of action and said it helped raise the overall execution of the team.

“We couldn’t ask them to execute much better (on defense),” McFall said. “If you hold Dimond under 50 points, you’re usually going to win.”

Crosby-Schneider even pitched in on offense with several crucial plays in the second half, including a bucket with 7:06 to play to tie the game at 30-all. The sophomore later swiped a steal with 2:13 left to keep the Stars in the game when it began to look bleak.

“It was my job to guard Alissa and have my other teammates, like the seniors, to put not as much pressure on them,” Crosby-Schneider said. “We wanted to keep (Pili) to 25 points, because she’s so high-scoring, so that really contributed.”

The Lynx earned their fifth straight state final appearance, having won two of the previous four. Dimond head coach Jason Stahl lauded Soldotna’s place in the tournament as one of the more even lineups.

“They’re very balanced,” Stahl said.

While McFall commended the SoHi defense, he acknowledged that the offense faced trouble getting shots to go in.

“It’s like we were afraid to take it to the basket,” he said. “The second half we calmed down and were getting good looks, but we still turned down some open shots. I thought the second half, we finally settled into (what we do) offensively, we just couldn’t quite execute down the stretch like we wanted to.”

Not long after Crosby-Schneider’s post shot early in the fourth quarter, the Stars tied it once again on an inbounds pass to Tuisaula, forging a 32-all contest.

However, the Lynx quickly ripped off a 7-0 run to go up 39-32, with five points coming from Schuster. Tuisaula knocked back a rebound with 4:11 left to end the run, but Pili came back with a drive to the hoop and the foul shot, putting the Lynx up 42-34 with 2:45 left.

In Saturday’s third-place game, Soldotna got off to a blazing start with a 17-4 lead, but the Mustangs found their groove and began to chip away at the lead, which was 30-21 at halftime. SoHi held a slim 39-38 edge entering the fourth quarter, but Chugiak won the final eight minutes 18-10 to secure third place.

In the second half, Soldotna’s shooting went cold at 14 percent (3 of 21), and overall, the Stars hit 16 of 23 attempts from the free throw line.

Brittani Blossom pumped in 15 points to lead SoHi, while Ituau Tuisaula notched 10 points and 10 boards and Danica Schmidt had nine rebounds and four steals. Chugiak got 19 points from Chasity Selden and 13 from Ari Lewis.

Friday girls

Lynx 46, Stars 36

Dimond 11 9 10 16 —46

Soldotna 9 6 13 8 —36

DIMOND (46) — Rogers 7, Martinez 2, Schuster 8, Camacho-Villafuerte 2, Roth 3, Parker 0, Rabb 2, Pili 22.

SOLDOTNA (36) — McGillivray 2, Blossom 2, A. Schmidt 14, Tuisaula 10, Holland 0, Crosby-Schneider 6, D. Schmidt 2.

3-point FG — Dimond 1 (Rogers); Soldotna 1 (A. Schmidt).

Team fouls — Dimond 6; Soldotna 13. Fouled out — none.

Friday boys

Kings 53, Stars 48

Soldotna 10 14 11 13 —48

Ketchikan 13 10 10 20 —53

SOLDOTNA (48) — Rich 0, Morrison 4, Hanson 2, Chumley 4, Truesdell 30, Kant 3, Michael 5.

KETCHIKAN (53) — M. Lee 16, Taylor 6, C. Lee 19, Smith 0, Kemble 1, Salazar 0, Barajas 2, Pihl 9, Hilton-Seludo 0.

3-point FG — Soldotna 6 (Truesdell 5, Kant 1); KETCHIKAN 4 (Taylor 2, Pihl 2).

Team fouls — Soldotna 18; Ketchikan 12. Fouled out — none.

Saturday girls

Mustangs 56, Stars 49

Soldotna 17 13 9 10 —49

Chugiak 4 17 17 18 —56

SOLDOTNA (49) — McGillivray 4, Blossom 15, A. Schmidt 6, Bouschor 3, Tuisaula 10, Holland 0, Crosby-Schneider 5, D. Schmidt 6.

CHUGIAK (56) — Carlos 0, Schwartz 0, Houser 0, Young 2, Selden 19, Palmer 11, Wachmann 9, Lewis 13, Larsen 0, Beam 2.

3-point FG — Soldotna 3 (Blossom 3); Chugiak 5 (Selden 2, Palmer 1, Wachmann 1, Lewis 1).

Team fouls — Soldotna 10; Chugiak 15. Fouled out — none.

Saturday boys

Knights 62, Stars 38

Colony 17 19 17 9 —62

Soldotna 12 2 15 9 —38

COLONY (62) — White 0, McMahon 19, Dearborn 4, Menard 19, Spencer 9, McPhail 0, Alley 0, Escobedo 0, Johnson 3, Finley 0, Hersrud 2, Baker 6.

SOLDOTNA (38) — Rich 0, Metcalf 0, Bouschor 0, Morrison 6, Hanson 0, Chumley 4, Truesdell 21, Kant 3, Wells 0, Rosin 0, Michael 4, Denna 0.

3-point FG — Colony 5 (Menard 2, Dearborn 1, Spencer 1, Johnson 1); Soldotna 5 (Truesdell 4, Kant 1).

Team fouls — Colony 8; Soldotna 10. Fouled out — none.