The Wasilla and Colony girls, and Palmer and Wasilla boys, will play for titles at the Northern Lights Conference tournament at Soldotna High School on Saturday. The four teams also earned the conference’s automatic berths to the Class 4A state tournament by making the finals.
In Friday’s semifinals, the top-seeded Colony girls defeated No. 4 Palmer 72-30 and No. 2 Wasilla topped No. 3 Mountain City Christian Academy 68-55.
The Knights and Warriors play at 5 p.m. for the title, while Palmer and MCCA play at 10 a.m. for third place. The loser of that game plays No. 5 Soldotna for fourth place at 1:30 p.m. The Stars defeated No. 6 Kodiak 61-24 on Friday to make the fourth-place game.
In the boys semis, No. 4 Palmer knocked off No. 1 Colony 49-44 and No. 2 Wasilla defeated No. 3 Soldotna 64-53.
The Moose and Warriors play for the title at 6:45 p.m. Saturday, while the Knights and Stars play for third place at 11:45 a.m. The loser of that game faces No. 5 Kodiak at 3:15 p.m. for fourth place. Kodiak nipped No. 6 MCCA 41-38 on Friday to make the fourth-place game.
The SoHi boys fell to 14-11 with the semifinal loss to Wasilla. Coach Darren Zibell said the loss cost his squad a spot at state, because he said SoHi does not have a good enough record to qualify for one of two at-large berths available to state.
The Stars could not overcome a slow start on offense, trailing 33-16 at the half. SoHi scored 37 points in the second half, but the hole was too deep.
“The second quarter was abysmal,” Zibell said. “We had only six points.”
With one exception, Zibell liked what his defense did all game. Even though Wasilla has good length at guard that allows the Warriors to pass out of traps, Zibell said his team still created the turnovers it needed.
Wasilla also got on the offensive glass, as would be expected with the Warriors length and the multiple zones SoHi employs. Zibell also said the team’s best rebounder, Andrew Pieh, had foul trouble in the game.
The biggest frustration on defense was giving up easy buckets in transition.
“They beat us in transition,” Zibell said. “They outran us the entire game.
“We talked about it in pregame — you’ve got to defend the 3 and you’ve got to get back on defense. And we didn’t do that.”
Zibell said his team got good looks in the first half, but didn’t make them.
“On one possession, we got four uncontested 3s,” Zibell said. “We shot great in warmups, we shot incredibly well.
“Then we got in the game and just didn’t shoot well.”
Despite the offensive struggles in the first half, the Stars threatened to work their way back into the game in the second half.
With 30 seconds left in the third period, Zac Buckbee cut it to 45-37 with a 3-pointer.
“They had to play with energy and intensity because we were down by so much,” Zibell said. “Instead of thinking about the moment, they just played.
“We do that in the first half, I think the outcome might be different.”
The Stars cut the gap to eight again — 51-43 — on a Easton Hawkins trey with 5:52 left in the game, but that was as close as they would get.
Zibell is happy the team had a winning record and doubled the win total from last year.
“We’re building something cool here, unfortunately it isn’t happening as quickly as we’d like,” he said.
Zibell said seniors Pieh, Buckbee, Cameron LaRoque and Jace O’Reagan will be missed, especially on defense, but the coach is excited about the young players in the program.
For the Stars, Izaiah Gilbert had 15, while Pieh had 12, Zac Buckbee had 11, Hawkins had 6, LaRoque had 5 and O’Reagan had 4.
Gavin Morris had 18 to pace Wasilla, while Noah Kroon had 14, Ledger Lusk had 10, Ryder Howard and Barak Wagle had 8, and Tristan Horton had 6.
In the other boys semi, for Palmer, Logan Rolston and Nolan Garner had 12, Tony Sheldon had 9, Isaac Evans had 8, Lukas Owens had 6 and KJ Henry had 2.
For Colony, Blake Dinkel and Eli Whitworth had 11, Nick Bailey, LJ Jones and Brady Reaves had 6, and Ridge Spencer and Jordan Sterling had 2.
Earlier Friday, for Kodiak in the game to play for fourth, Aron Paguio had 19, Kelly Ticman and Liam Danelski had 5, Antonio Basuel and Shan Casabar had 4, and Mac Abellera and Jon Bradbury had 2.
For MCCA, Lukas Underhile and Nolan Warren had 14, Darian Igwacho had 8 and Serge Duchatellier had 2.
In the second girls semifinal, Layla Hays commanded the paint for the Warriors, tallying 34 points. Also for Wasilla, Mylee Anderson had 18, Mielee Merchant had 9, Savannah Kroon had 4, Katie Jackson had 2 and Kyndra Boling had 1.
For the Lions, Morgan Maldonado and Maliyah Alex had 15, Jieaya Saitini had 8, Keelie Kronberger had 6, Jasmine Schaeffer had 5, Nyamach Mathot had 4 and Nyawuow Majiok had 2.
In the other semi, Hallie Clark had 22 for Colony, Tonya Karpow had 16, Morgan Ainsworth had 12, Ally Shelley had 7, Ashlyn Waggoner and Bella Shelley had 5, Grace Spencer had 3 and Saibree Noll had 2.
For Palmer, Larkin Christiansen had 11, Abby Pettit had 6, Diana Lane had 5, and Maija Huckabay and Jasmine Hephner had 4.
Early Friday, the Soldotna girls improved to 11-14 overall with the win over Kodiak.
Anaulie Sedivy had 14 for the Stars, while Kaytlin McAnelly had 11, Alyssa McDonald had 9, Juliet Innes had 7, Hope Hillyer had 6, Grayson Henry and Sarah Brown had 4, and Laurel Johnson, Isabella Cruz and Ryan Queen had 2.
For Kodiak, Mizzy Arbues had 16, Bea Fangonilo had 4, Amara Timu had 3 and Angeli Doctolero had 1.
Soldotna’s Izaiah Gilbert drives on Wasilla’s Ledger Lusk on Friday, March 8, 2024, at the Northern Lights Conference tournament at Soldotna High School in Soldotna, Alaska. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)
