Girls basketball: Late run lifts WHS

WASILLA — Perseverance at the free-throw line and gritty fourth-quarter defense helped the Wasilla Warriors extend their Northern Lights Conference winning streak to 96 games Friday night with a 44-36 win over the Soldotna Stars at Wasilla High School.

The Warriors hit just 40 percent of their attempts from the charity stripe, but still hit eight more foul shots than the Stars, who got to the line just six times.

The big key to the game was Wasilla’s defensive pressure down the stretch. The Warriors held SoHi to just three fourth-quarter points, and held Soldotna forward Paige Blackburn — who had scored 17 points through the first three quarters — without a point in the final eight minutes of the game.

Wasilla head coach Jeannie Hebert-Truax said she called timeout early in the fourth quarter in order to emphasize the importance of defensive pressure as the game neared crunch time.

“I said, ‘Hey, this is the point where we need to make a defensive stop,’” she said.

The advice worked, as SoHi scored just two points over the final five minutes of the game.

Wasilla led for the entire first half, but couldn't pull away from the pesky Stars, which got 11 first-half points from Blackburn on a variety of nifty post moves.

“She’s one of the better post players in the league,” Hebert-Truax said of Blackburn.

Wasilla freshman forward Kelsey Cottle held her own against Blackburn, netting 10 points for the Warriors down low. Senior point guard Shelby Fulton added eight points for Wasilla, which also got six from Skyler Nuss and two from Jillian Troisi.

Blackburn led SoHi with 17 points. Point guard Karen Senette finished with seven for the Stars, while Shelby Dykstra added six, Jessi Stenga had four and April Heffner netted two.

Wasilla led by as many as eight points in the opening quarter, but SoHi was able to cut that lead to three at the buzzer on a last-second three-pointer by Senette.

Junior guard Jenna Johnson kept Wasilla in front in the first half, netting a team-high 10 points and grabbing seven rebounds in the opening 16 minutes of play as the Warriors took a 24-21 lead into the locker room. Johnson, an all-state performer last season as a sophomore, finished the game with 18 points and 10 rebounds to lead all players in both categories.

The teams jockeyed back and forth in the second half that featured five ties and four lead changes. The Warriors finally took the lead for good with a Johnson free throw with 5:33 left.

Senior point guard Shelby Fulton also helped ice the game down the stretch by hitting four of her five attempts from the free throw line in the fourth quarter, including a pair late that put the Warriors up by five points with just over a minute left in the game.

“Shelby hit two big ones when we really needed it,” Hebert-Truax said.

Despite her team’s solid effort from the line in the fourth, the Wasilla coach was far from thrilled to see her team miss more than they made from the charity stripe.

“We’ll work on that free throw thing,” she said.

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@frontiersman.com

WARRIORS 44, STARS 36

Friday, Wasilla High School

Wasilla 12-12-10-10—44

Soldotna 9-12-12-3—36

Wasilla (44) — Fulton 2 4-7 8, Nuss 2 2-6 6, Naczi 0 0-4 0, Johnson 6 4-8 18, Troisi 1 0-0 2, Cottle 5 0-0 10. Totals: 16 10-25 44.

Soldotna (36) — Senette 3 0-0 7, Stenga 2 0-0 4, Dykstra 2 1-2 6, Heffner 1 0-0 2, Duffy 0 2-2 2, Blackburn 8 1-2 17. Totals: 16 2-6 36.

Three point goals: Wasilla 2 (Johnson 2), Soldotna 2 (Senette, Dykstra). Total fouls: Wasilla 9, Soldotna 17. Fouled out: Senette.