Championship Knight

ANCHORAGE — A talented bunch of youngsters grew up just in time Saturday night as the Colony Knights used clutch free-throw shooting in overtime to pull out a 49-45 win over the Chugiak Mustangs at Sullivan Arena in the ASAA First National Bank 4A State Girls Basketball championship game.

“It's kind of crazy,” Colony's Hayley Hotchkiss — the team's only senior — said of the win. “I don't know what to think right now.”

Colony hit 9-of-10 free throws in the overtime period, including a perfect 6-for-6 from junior forward Alex Coon, who led the Knights with 17 points and seven rebounds in the game.

Coon said having the pressure on her down the stretch didn't bother her a bit.

“I was just thinking, it's just like practice,” she said.

In the game, Colony made 24-of-30 free-throw attempts to just 6-of-8 for the Mustangs.

Coon said she liked having the ball in her hands with the game on the line.

“It's nice to be in control of it rather than having to watch,” Coon said. “I like being in control.”

Another junior, Kara Larson, made the biggest play of regulation for the Knights, stealing the ball from the Mustangs with less than five seconds left on the clock to force the extra period. Larson nearly turned the ball back over after taking possession, but Colony coach Don Witzel called timeout just before Larson's errant pass.

“I don't even know really what happened,” Larson said. “It's a good thing we got that timeout.”

The win was Colony's fourth title and the fourth for Witzel, who has guided the team to six of its seven state title game appearances and all four of the team's titles.

Saturday marked the first time the Knights have played in a final since Colony lost to East Anchorage in 2000. Following the game, the longtime Colony coach said he's not yet sure where this year's title ranks among the Knights' previous three.

“It's hard to say. It's been kind of a long time since the others,” Witzel said.

Moments after narrowly-dodging a water-bottle bath beneath the Sullivan Arena bleachers, Witzel said the one thing that will stand out about this year's championship team is the close-knit nature of his squad.

“This one was nice because this is just a great group of kids. They work well together, they're great kids to work with, they have great work ethic in practice,” he said. “They deserve it.”

The Knights received their championship trophy from Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a Wasilla High grad who has now handed out three state basketball titles to Valley teams in the past two years after the Wasilla Warriors swept both championships a year ago.

Chugiak got a game-high 22 points from senior guard Sarah Watzke, who staked the Mustangs to an early 12-5 lead by slicing through the Colony defense for easy lay-ups.

“She's an incredible athlete,” Chugiak coach Tracy Adams said of Watzke, who scored all nine of her field goals on slashing drives to the basket. “When things get stagnant she can take things over if she has to.”

Lorrie Clifford had seven points for Chugiak, Lindsey Murphy added five, Liz Meddaugh and Alexis Sayer scored four each and Angela Weiss added three.

Colony fought back in the second quarter, Chugiak’s lead to 18-16 by the half. The teams battled back-and-forth in the third quarter.

Coon got back-to-back three-point plays underneathin the third. Reserve Maria Bowker gave the Knights a 31-28 lead with four straight points to end the quarter.

“We kind of went in with the idea that inside is our strength,” Witzel said of his team's play in the paint, which got 29 of its points from it's junior forwards — Coon, Larson and Allie Grazulis.

Witzel said he was impressed with his team's ability not to go cold against a deliberate, precise Chugiak offense that can lull teams to sleep.

“I would say offensively this was one of our better games just simply because we didn't have a drought and basically we stayed focused while we were playing we always had an objective,” he said.

Colony's problem in the Knights' six losses this season was often the team's tendency to go cold for long stretches of games.

Not Saturday.

“We didn't have that tonight,” Witzel said. “We stayed focused.”

Bowker had 11 points off the bench for the Knights, Grazulis had 12 points and six rebounds, Larson finished with six points and seven boards and Jackie Hamann scored three for the Knights, which got all of its 49 points from its junior

class.

“We're all really good friends and we just have a lot of fun when we play together, so it makes the season a lot of fun when you have a lot of friends on the team,” Larson said. “And when you win the title it makes it a little more fun.”

The teams traded leads in the fourth quarter before a Grazulis free throw with 1:06 left tied things up. Chugiak then ran the clock down with its disciplined weave and called timeout with 6.9 second left to go to try and set up a potential game-winning shot.

But Meddaugh's pass into the corner found Larson instead, forcing the extra four minutes of overtime. There, Colony's prowess at the charity stripe helped them outscore the Mustangs 11-4 before a meaningless three by Chugiak's Lindsay Murphy at the buzzer.

“You can't defend free throws,” Adams said.

All but Hotchkiss are set to return next season for the Knights, who entered the tournament as the No. 2 seed behind Chugiak.

But while Colony now wears the crown, Kara Larson said there's plenty of talented teams out there who'd love to take it away next season.

“We're definitely going to go for another state championship, but we're going to have to work a lot more at practice, put in a lot of work in the off season,” Larson said. “It's going to be a hard year.”

KNIGHTS 49, MUSTANGS 45

4A girls state title game

Saturday, Sullivan Arena

Colony 7 9 15 7 — 49

Chugiak 12 6 10 10 — 45

Colony (49) — Hamann 0 3-4 3, Bowker 3 4-4 11, Grazulis 3 6-8 12, Coon 4 9-10 17, Larson 2 2-4 6. Totals: 12 24-30 49.

Chugiak (45) — S. Watzke 9 4-6 22, Murphy 2 0-0 5, Meddaugh 2 0-0 4, Sayer 1 2-2 4, Clifford 3 0-0 7, Weiss 1 0-0 3. Totals: 18 6-8 45.

Three-point field goals — Colony 1 (Ma. Bowker), Chugiak 1 (Weiss). Total fouls — Colony 13, Chugiak 20. Fouled out — S. Watzke, Sayer.

All-tournament team:

Boys — Cory Toombs, Kenai; Trevor Smith, South; Kevin Winford, Bartlett; Josh Moseley, Colony; Anthony Cousin, South; Ryan Hanley, Dimond; Eric Gross, Juneau; Damon Newsome, Bartlett; Aaron Stevens, South; Rylan Whilden, Dimond.

Girls — Nicole Fenumiai, Juneau; Shelby Fulton, Wasilla; Alex Coon, Colony; Lorrie Clifford, Chugiak; Sylvia Bullock, South; Jenna Johnson, Wasilla; Matti Cox, Palmer; Sarah Watzke, Chugiak; Allie Grazulis, Colony; Kara Larson, Colony.