Colony boys back in state tourney

WASILLA — Colony used a team effort to ensure the Knights one of the two Northern Lights Conference teams with an automatic bid to the 4A state tournament.

“I thought we kind of got back to early in the season, true team basketball,” Colony head coach Tom Berg said after the Knights scored a 55-32 win over the Soldotna Stars during the NLC boys semifinals Friday afternoon at Wasilla High School. “We like our guys. I like how hard they work, how hard they played together.”

Fourth-seeded Soldotna managed only single digits in scoring in three of the four quarters, and Colony didn’t allow a SoHi bucket until about the midway point of both the third and the fourth.

“Defensively, trying to dig in. Those (Soldotna) guards are pretty good,” Berg said of the priority on that end of the floor. “We did a good job of containing them. They never really felt comfortable. We didn’t let them get going, get confident.”

The Knights held Soldotna to 12 of 32 shooting, 3 of 13 from beyond the arc.

In addition to his team’s work against the SoHi guards, Berg said the Knights also stepped up to combat Soldotna’s physical presence inside.

“They did a good job of being active,” Berg said.

Berg said the Knights also didn’t make many mistakes while playing physical, and didn’t give up easy points.

Berg said he also liked the team effort on the offensive side. Will Freeman and Colton Spencer scored 10 each. Jon Pomrenke chipped in nine. Patrick McMahon and Sullivan Menard added seven each.

“I thought the ball movement was really good,” Berg said.

Soldotna used a 10-point second quarter to pull within three possessions at halftime, but didn’t get its first basket of the third until Eli Sheridan’s jumper at the 4:10 mark. A Sam McElroy layup at the 4:20 mark of the fourth marked Soldotna’s first points of the fourth quarter.

Caleb Spence led Soldotna with 11 points in the loss. Jersey Truesdell and McElroy added six each.

With the win, Colony returns to the state tournament after falling short last season.

“I’m happy for these guys. They punched their ticket,” Berg said.

It also sets up another meeting with rival Wasilla. The Knights, who split a pair of regular season games with the Warriors, will face Wasilla in the NLC title game Saturday at 5:15 p.m. at Wasilla High. Soldotna will face third-seeded Palmer in the NLC third-place game Saturday afternoon.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com

Colony 55, Soldotna 32

NLC boys semifinals

Friday, Wasilla High School

Soldotna 7-10-6-9—32

Colony 13-13-14-15—55

Soldonta (32) — Truesdell 2 0-0 6, Spence 3 4-5 11, Sheridan 1 1-2 3, Crowder 2 0-0 4, Michael 1 0-0 2, McElry 3 0-0 6; Totals: 12 5-9 32.

Colony (55) — Pomrenke 4 1-2 9, McMahon 3 0-0 7, Freeman 3 3-3 10, Menard 1 5-6 7, Spencer 3 2-2 10, Kizer 0 2-2 2, Villastrigo 1 1-2 3, Hersrud 3 0-0 6, Baker 0 1-2 1; Totals: 18 15-19 55.

3-point field goals: Soldotna 3 (Truesdell 2), Colony 4 (Spencer 2); Total fouls: Soldotna 19, Colony 13.