Cronk's 48 lead Warriors to win

PALMER -- To say Chandice Cronk was on fire Tuesday would be an understatement. Cronk was like an inferno, that consistently tore across the Colony High School gym floor and lit up the Knights for 48 points in the Warriors 61-48 win.

There was a magnetic attraction between the basketball and the bottom of the hoop each time a shot left Cronk's fingertips. Cronk took 23 shots in the contest, with just five missing the target. She was 18-for-23 against her cross-town rival. Cronk shot 78 percent from the floor, and hit all eight of her attempts in the second half. The scoring output is the highest since Cronk joined the Warriors. She scored 50 points in a game as a freshman for Northway.

Late in the fourth quarter Cronk calmly hit the 40-point mark with a three-point shot from the top of the key. Though it was obvious to everyone in attendance that Cronk's scoring touch led the Warriors to victory, those not keeping score could be surprised with her massive total.

"I wouldn't have thought unless someone had told me," Wasilla head coach Jeannie Hebert-Truax said. "It was all in the realm of our offense."

Cronk was able to flourish within the Wasilla scheme, hitting off feeds from teammates as well as creating shots in transition and within the half-court offense.

"I don't think I forced a shot," Cronk said. "We did it in the offense."

Cronk is known statewide to be as deadly as the Ebola virus when waiting alone in three-point land, but it was more than just the catch and shoot method that contributed to Cronk's success.

"I have been trying to work on my mind-range shot," Cronk said. "Coach has said that is what I have been lacking."

Cronk befuddled the Colony guards with her mid-range shot. When the lightning-quick Knight defenders put too much pressure on Cronk when she sat in three-point land, the Warrior senior drove a few steps ahead of the arc and buried the bucket.

Cronk also benefited from Colony mistakes as the Knights' tried to spark their offense with high-risk ball movement. Four of Cronk's buckets came after her steals in transition, and two others after a teammate recorded a steal and fed Cronk with a long pass.

Though Cronk single-handedly equaled the scoring output of the Knights squad, Hebert-Truax said it was the play of the other four Warriors on the court that opened the door for Cronk's success. She cited the ball movement by the guards and pressure inside by the post players as reason for the open looks Cronk received consistently.

Wasilla opened with a 15-0 run in the first quarter, and managed to stay ahead of Colony for the duration of the game. Cronk scored nine of her team's first 13 points and the Wasilla defense did not allow a Knight point until the 1:39 point of the first quarter. Kristina Klapperich, who quietly scored a team-high 24 points, hit a free throw to rid the Colony scoreboard of the goose egg. Colony notched its first bucket of the game as Kate Baldwin pulled down an offensive rebound and threw up a shot just before the first-half buzzer sounded.

"Our goal was to get out there and get them," Cronk said. "That start won the game."