Colony boys edge Service to place 3rd

ANCHORAGE — Early in the fourth quarter Saturday, the Colony Knights reached a pivotal moment, sort of a crossroads on the basketball court. The Knights were trailing Service by eight points.

Was it time to usher in the new generation, or let the old guard go out with a bang?

The Knights chose the latter.

Colony scored 16 fourth-quarter points and grabbed a 58-57 win over the Service Cougars in the ASAA/First National Bank 4A State Basketball Championships third-place game at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage Saturday.

“We were down eight, and we’re like, we’re not going to lose this,” Colony senior Tucker Looney said after the win. “We just kept saying that.”

And that’s exactly what Colony head coach Tom Berg wanted to hear.

“It was kind of teetering on to where, do you pull your seniors off and throw it in? But we were able to make some shots, and get some stops and turnovers,” Berg said after the win. “As soon as we scored a couple in transition, you could kind of see their spirits lift, and they finished off the way they were supposed to finish off.”

Senior Robert Sonnenberg scored six of his game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter and junior Bailey West hit a go-ahead three-pointer with about two minutes left to help Colony place third for the third straight year.

The Knights faced a pivotal juncture while trailing the Cougars by eight. It’s a predicament the Knights could relate to simply playing in the third-place game for a third straight year, and missing its ultimate goal of a shot at the state championship for the third time in as many seasons.

Berg said he appreciates the last three years Colony’s had as a program, but playing in the third-place game is not the same as playing for a state title.

“What I think comes out of it is these guys love to play basketball. They like to play together and what I kind of told them before the game, is they have to set the disappointment aside,” Berg said. “I’ve used the same speech the last three years. How we play and why we play. Why we play? We’re competitive and we love the game. How we play? We want to be successful. We want to win. It’s not the game we want to be in, but it’s the game we love.

“I ask them every single year in the morning what they want to do,” Berg said. “Do we want to just roll out the new guys or do we want to play and compete. Do you want to be just a page-turner, or do you want it to be a cap of a good season?”

Looney said it was important to go out with a win.

“It was a big bummer last night for us to lose,” Looney said of the semifinal loss to East Anchorage. “Coming out here, we just gave it our all. It was a great way to end the season. Not many people can do that.”

The Knights capped the season with the one-point victory over the Cougars, the 2014 4A state champions.

After the Knights began to chew away at that eight-point deficit, Colony cut the Service lead to 51-48 with a pair of Ethan Selmer free throws. Moments after Looney hit a free throw, junior Anton Chamblee hit a short jumper to tie the game at 51 with 3:30 left.

Service used a 4-2 run to take a 55-53 lead.

With just about two minutes left, West grabbed a steal at midcourt, drove up the court and pulled up to hit a long three-pointer to give the Knights the 56-55 lead. West helped preserve the victory with another basket with 30 seconds left.

“He was terrific this weekend,” Berg said of West. “He competes every single night. That’s the driving force for him. He wants to compete. He wants to win. He wants to play well.”

West finished with 10 points, nine rebounds, five steals and four assists.

Sonnenberg led Colony with 18 points. Chamblee added 11.

Eben Upton scored 18 for Service. Pindo Drammeh scored 16 and Nathan Fromm added 15 for the Cougars.

Colony 58, Service 57

4A boys third-place game

Saturday, Sullivan Arena

Service 9-17-16-15—57

Colony 8-17-15-18—58

Service (57) — Wacker 2 3-4 8, Upton 6 3-4 18, Drammeh 6 3-6 16, Fromm 7 1-1 15; Totals: 21 10-15 57.

Colony (58) — Selmer 0 2-2 2, Looney 3 3-4 9, West 4 0-0 10, Chamblee 4 0-0 11, Menard 2 0-0 4, Sonnenberg 8 2-2 18, Lincoln 2 0-0 4; Totals: 24 7-8 58.