Colony girls rebound to grab third in NLC

SOLDOTNA — Despite an ugly loss to Kodiak during Friday’s semifinal round, the Colony Knights hit the court Saturday as a team on the verge of claiming one of ASAA’s two at-large bids to the upcoming 4A state tournament.

With the Knights appearing to be state tourney bound, Colony was looking to build some momentum during its match with rival Soldotna in the conference’s third-place game. Colony rebounded from a third-quarter offensive drought to score a 47-46 win over the Stars during the final day of the Northern Lights Conference Championships at Soldotna High School.

“That’s what you try to do,” Colony head coach Jeff Bowker said of gaining some positive momentum heading into the final tourney of the season. “We played so horrific (Friday), you don’t want to leave with that on your mind, because it’s going to make it real tough through two weeks of practice going into the tournament.”

Colony, which placed third in the NLC for the second straight year, was held scoreless for the first six minutes of the third quarter. But sparked by a Faith Farris three-pointer at the 2:07 mark, Colony ended the third period on a 11-2 run.

Mary Klapperich also hit a key three during the run, which tied the game at 36 with 47 seconds left in the quarter.

Audrey Michealson hit a pair of free throws late in the third to give Colony its first lead of the second half.

“We went through little doldrums in the second half, but you knew it wasn’t going to be a blowout,” Bowker said.

Colony used that late third-quarter run to take a lead into the final period.

“I’m real proud of the girls in the third quarter. When everything that could have gone bad went bad, it could have been real easy to say, ‘here it goes again,’” Bowker said. “I thought they played real strong in the third quarter.”

Colony was held without a point during the third quarter of a 34-18 loss to Kodiak Friday, and the Knights were unable to rebound in the fourth.

Saturday, Colony pushed its lead to seven points late in the fourth with a Klapperich basket.

Izzy Tweed grabbed a steal and fed Klapperich with the ball, and Klapperich gave the Knights the 46-39 advantage.

Soldotna did rally late. Makayala Wong used a layup to pull Soldotna within three points.

After Klapperich went 1 for 2 at the free throw line, Kelci Benson knocked down a three-pointer to cut Colony’s advantage to 47-46.

Soldotna had a final possession late, but was not able to provide the go-ahead score.

Wasilla, the 2013 NLC champion, and runner-up Kodiak earned the conference’s two automatic bids, but Colony is expected to earn one of the 4A state bracket’s two at-large bids once the official field is released by ASAA Sunday evening. ASAA uses its Winning Percentage Index to rank teams at the 4A level.

Heading into the tournament, Colony held a top-5 WPI rating in the state.

Colony 47, Soldotna 46

NLC third-place game

Saturday, Soldotna

Colony 19-8-11-9—47

Soldotna 10-16-10-10—46

Colony (47) — Klapperich 7 1-4 19, Farris 3 2-5 9, Tweed 2 2-2 7, Stephens 1 0-2 2, Turcotte 1 0-0 2, Michaelson 1 4-6 6, Solano 1 0-1 2; Totals: 16 9-20 47.

Soldotna (46) — Benson 3 1-2 8, Litchfield 1 0-1 2, Wong 3 2-4 8, Kerkvliet 2 0-0 4, Westerman 4 0-0 8, Skjold 6 3-5 16; Totals: 19 6-12 46.