Colony girls finish 5th in state tourney

ANCHORAGE — The morning after Colony came within reach of knocking off second-seeded Dimond, the Knights had to settle for fifth in the 4A girls bracket.

East Anchorage scored a 45-35 victory over the Knights during the 4A girls third-place game of the ASAA/First National Bank State Basketball Championships at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage.

Colony trailed by just three at the half, but East used a 12-7 third-quarter run to maintain its lead over the Knights. Kali Bull led Colony with 17 points in the loss. Bull hit four of Colony’s five three-pointers. Alex Carlton and Ella Smith added five each.

Tennae Voliva scored 20 for East.

Second-seeded Dimond narrowly escaped with a win over third-seeded Colony in the other semifinal.

The Lynx hit four free throws in the final 50 seconds to secure a 61-58 semifinal win over the Knights. Dimond had to overcome a number of big Colony buckets to advance to the state title game for the second straight year.

Colony junior Ella Smith knocked down a three-pointer with 9.5 seconds left in regulation to cut Dimond’s lead to a point, but Dimond’s Jahnna Hajdukovich hit a pair of free throws in the final seconds to push her team’s lead back to three, and Colony was unable to get one final clean look from beyond the arc.

Colony hit 10 three-pointers in the loss, including a trey by sophomore Kali Bull that cut Dimond’s advantage to 47-46 with 1:37 left in the third. Bull gave her team the lead, completing a three-point play, with 1:06 left in the third. Bull made a play at the basket, was fouled and hit the free throw to give Colony the 49-47 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.

Amanda Smith knocked down four of Colony’s 10 threes, and scored a team-high 16 for the Knights. Bull added 11 and Paige Clary chipped in eight.

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

East Anchorage 45, Colony 35

4A girls’ third-place game

Saturday, Anchorage

East 12-7-12-14—45

Colony 6-10-7-12—35

East (45) — Villereal 1 1-4 4, Brown 1 0-0 2, Page 0 1-2 1, Robinson 0 2-4 2, Kidder 2 5-8 9, Voliva 7 5-8 20, Hines 2 3-4 7; Totals: 14 17-30 45.

Colony (35) — Watson 1 0-0 2, A. Smith 1 0-0 2, Clary 1 0-0 2, Bull 6 1-2 17, Steiner 1 0-0 2, Carlton 2 1-2 5, E. Smith 2 0-0 5; Totals: 14 2-5 35.

Dimond 61, Colony 58

4A girls semifinals

Friday, Anchorage

Colony 17-17-15-9—58

Dimond 14-23-10-14—61

Colony (58) — Duguid 1 2-2 5, Watson 0 1-2 1, A. Smith 5 2-2 16, Clary 4 0-1 8, Bull 4 1-1 11, Steiner 2 0-0 5, Novelli 0 2-2 2, Carlton 1 0-0 3, E. Smith 3 0-0 7; Totals: 20 8-10 58.

Dimond (61) — Osborne 1 0-0 2, Bialo 2 0-0 6, Carle 3 1-4 7, Johansen 1 0-0 3, Hajdukovich 5 7-7 19, Pili 6 12-18 24; Totals: 18 20-27 61.

3-point field goals: Colony 10 (A. Smith 4), Dimond 4 (Hajdukovich, Bialo 2); Total fouls: Colony 19, Dimond 12.