Girls basketball: Knights grab win over rival Moose

PALMER — Heading into play Wednesday there was a three-way battle for a No. 2 seed in the upcoming Northern Lights Conference Championships.

Colony, Kodiak and Palmer were all still alive for a shot at No. 2 and an opportunity to open NLC tourney play on the opposite side of the bracket of top seed and defending state champion Wasilla. While there is still plenty of regular-season hoops to be played, Colony took a positive step toward that second seed, scoring a 36-32 win over the Moose at Colony High.

While the win pushes Colony, at least temporarily, into second place of the NLC North Division with a 5-4 record, Colony head coach Jeff Bowker is concerned more about momentum and less about seeding.

“I just want to be on a roll going into regions. We’ve thought about it,” Bowker said of the seedings. “But we don’t talk to the players about it. They just need to go play. I just want to be on a roll.”

Kodiak now sits in third at 4-4, but has two chances to move up in the standings. Palmer (3-5) hosts the Bears tonight and Saturday.

The Knights close their conference regular season tonight at Wasilla.

A Kodiak sweep of Palmer would give the Bears the No. 2 seed regardless of what happens at Wasilla tonight. The Bears swept Colony in a two-game set earlier this season and own the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Knights. A Palmer sweep of the Bears would leave Kodiak as the fourth seed in the North. Colony owns the head-to-head tiebreaker with Palmer, and the highest the Moose can finish is third in the NLC North.

A Palmer-Kodiak split and a Colony loss to Wasilla would also give the Bears the No. 2 seed.

Led by senior Saige Stefanski, the Knights built an early lead. But the head coaches of both teams said, overall, the key to the game was rebounding.

“I told the girls, rebounding differential is probably one of the biggest stats in basketball,” Palmer head coach Paul Reid said. “We just gave up too many offensive boards.”

Colony outrebounded Palmer 30-15 in the win.

“Without question,” Bowker said of the importance of that statistic. “Second-chance opportunities and one-and-done on their end.”

Mary Klapperich led the Knights with 11 points. Stefanski added nine.

Taylor Blake, who drained a pair of fourth-quarter three-pointers, scored a game-high 14 for Palmer.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and follow him at twitter.com/matsu_sports.

Colony 36, Palmer 32

Wednesday, Colony High School

Palmer 7-6-6-13—32

Colony 15-9-6-6—36

Palmer (32) — Scott 1 1-2 1, Jensen 0 0-2 0, Koehn 1 1-2 4, Blake 4 4-4 14, Whitfield 0 1-2 1, Brandenburg 2 3-4 7, Huffman 2 1-3 5.

Colony (36) — Klapperich 4 2-2 11, Faris 1 2-4 4, Twead 1 0-0 5, Nelson 1 0-2 2, Stefanski 3 3-3 9, Solano 1 0-0 2.