It’s tourney time in the Valley

Matt Tunseth

Frontiersman

MAT-SU — Wasilla girls coach Jeannie Hebert-Truax knows regardless of where a team is seeded in the bracket, each squad has to do the same thing to advance out of this weekend’s Northern Lights Conference tournament.

“You’ve still got to win two straight games to get to state,” Hebert-Truax said on Saturday.

Hebert-Truax, who led her team to a 9-1 Northern Lights Conference record during the regular season, knows it’s going to be a tough road for the seven-time defending conference champs when the NLC tournament starts Thursday at Palmer High School.

Wasilla, the top seed in the NLC’s North Division, will face Skyview (1-9), a team the Warriors beat handily earlier this season, in the first round Thursday at 11:30 a.m.

But assuming the Warriors win that first-round matchup, Wasilla has the potential of seeing a Valley rival in the next two rounds.

Palmer, a team Wasilla narrowly beat twice this season, is the third seed from the North and opens with Kenai, the No. 2 from the South.

First-round wins for Palmer and Wasilla would place the Valley schools in a semifinal match.

“It’s going to be a battle,” Hebert-Truax said of a potential Warrior-Moose match in the semis. “We’ve got to get through them to get to where we want to go.”

If the Warriors advance to the title game for a ninth straight year, Wasilla’s opponent could be another Valley team — Colony. The Knights are the second seed in the North, and a team that Wasilla split with in two regular season games.

Colony snapped Wasilla’s streak of 100 consecutive wins against NLC opponents with its win over the Warriors last Saturday.

Even though the Warriors finished with just a single NLC defeat, Wasilla has had a bit of a learning curve during the 2007-08 season. The Warriors returned only two players — senior Shelby Fulton and junior Jenna Johnson — from a 2006-07 squad that captured the Class 4A state championship.

Although most teams will be focused on Fulton, Wasilla’s point guard, and Johnson, the Warriors’ all-state guard and top scoring threat, Hebert-Truax said the play of Wasilla’s group of young talent will certainly be key.

“Those younger kids are a really big part of what we’ve been able to do,” Hebert-Truax said. “They’ve got to be able to step up just as well as Jenna and Shelby.”

The Warriors have had two freshman — forward Celeste Colegrove and center Kelsey Cottle — and sophomore guard Skyler Nuss in the starting lineup for most of the season. Another sophomore, guard Carlee Naczi also sees a ton of playing time.

The Palmer girls inserted themselves rudely into the discussion of NLC tournament front-runners in the final game of the regular season last Friday night at Colony High School.

Though the Moose (6-4 in the NLC) will enter the tournament as the third seed from the North, Palmer got a big boost with a 48-44 win over Colony, handing the Knights just their second conference loss of the year on senior night at CHS.

“Momentum is big going into regions, so it was a big win as far at that goes for sure,” Palmer coach Paul Reid said.

Palmer took a tough loss to Soldotna the previous week, and guard Mattie Cox said the Moose didn’t want to enter the tournament on a losing streak.

“It would have been hard going into regions on a two-game losing streak,” Cox said. “That gives us a lot of confidence.”

Like their counterparts on the boys’ side of the bracket, the Palmer girls will also play Kenai Central (3-7 NLC, second in the South Division) in the first round. The Moose easily handled the Kardinals in the teams’ only meeting of the season, a 65-31 Palmer win, and it’s a good bet top-seeded Wasilla will be waiting in the semifinals with a state berth on the line Friday.

While fans of Wasilla and Palmer may be anticipating that second-round rematch, Colony head coach Don Witzel knows all to well that it’s never good to look too far ahead.

Last year, the Knights were the No. 2 seed in the North facing the No. 3 seed from the South, the Skyview Panthers. Rather than the Knights moving forward, it was the Panthers advancing after an upset victory over Colony. That loss was just the start of the woes for the Knights last year. With another loss in the consolation rounds, Colony was eliminated from the tourney and failed to advance to the state tournament for the first time in 14 seasons.

This year, the Knights are the No. 2 seed from the North preparing for the No. 3 team from the South. This time it’s Homer as the opponent. The teams meet at 3 p.m. on Thursday.

“The first thing we got to focus on is winning our first game,” Witzel said.

After losing its first conference game of the regular season to Wasilla, the Knights have won nine straight in NLC play. The Knights are a junior-laden team boasting eight players in their third year. The talented group of juniors includes forwards Allie Grazulis, Alex Coon and Kara Larson; and guards Jackie Hamann, Maria Bowker and Tara Garrod.

Colony’s lone senior is guard Hayley Hotchkiss.

The boys’ bracket

Though the Moose finished last in the NLC’s North Division, Palmer guard T.J. Fullmer said he thinks Palmer has a very good chance of making a return trip to the state tournament.

“I think we do,” Fullmer said following Palmer’s regular-season finale loss to Colony. “Our record doesn’t show how good we are, but we’re feeling pretty confident.”

Palmer finished just 3-7 in conference play, but Fullmer pointed out that the Moose have played close games against top boys teams such as Service and South Anchorage, as well as Thursday’s first-round opponent at the NLC tournament.

“We just played Kenai tough last weekend,” he said.

Palmer’s only meeting with the Kardinals was a 60-53 Kenai win in Kenai. Though the Kardinals are the top seed from the South Division with a 6-4 record, the team is coming off a tough loss to rival SoHi last weekend.

Fullmer’s dad, Palmer head coach Greg Fullmer, said he thinks his team is playing its best basketball of the season as tournament time rolls around, and said he believes the Moose are a serious threat to claim one of the conference’s three state tourney bids.

“We have a good shot, we really do,” he said.

In Kenai, the Moose will have to contend with a struggling but dangerous squad that features a senior-heavy lineup known for their outside shooting prowess.

Palmer entered last year’s tournament as a No. 4 seed, yet scored upsets over Kenai and Soldotna in the consolation round to reach the state tournament. A similar result over the Kardinals this year would put Palmer one game from duplicating last year’s run.

Palmer’s first-round game against the Kardinals is set for 8:15 p.m. Thursday, the final game of the tournament’s opening day.

The Moose were part of a Valley sweep in the 2007 tournament. Colony and Wasilla each advanced to the conference title game last year, and then two weeks later met in the state championship game.

Colony (10-0) is the top team in the North, and the lone undefeated team in all of the NLC.

While the Colony girls’ squad is junior-laden, the boys feature a squad made up of nearly all seniors.

There are seven seniors in Colony head coach Jeff Bowker’s bunch. The group is led by sharp-shooting guard Doug Gray, the versatile Grant Niver and the hard-nosed Jaron Murphy.

Also key for the Knights is sophomore John Palmer, one of the top underclassmen in the conference.

Not only have the Knights been very successful against teams from within the NLC, but Colony has also done extremely well against nonconfernece opponents. The Knights, 18-4 overall, have won 16 straight. Their last loss came to Dimond in the title game of the Alaska Prep Shootout at Dimond High School in early January.

Colony actually started its season off 0-3, losing all three of its games in the Gaslight Holiday Classic, a tournament held in Jeffersontown, Ken., in December.

The Knights open the 2008 NLC tourney against Homer at 4:45 p.m. on Thursday.

The Wasilla Warriors, the defending NLC and 4A state champions, are the No. 2 seed from the North. Colony was the only NLC team that could beat Warriors (8-2 in the NLC) during the regular season.

Wasilla is another team that has surged in the second half of the season. Before their regular-season ending loss to Colony last Saturday, the Warriors had won eight of their last nine.

During that stretch, the Warriors recorded double-digit wins in seven of those games.

Leading the Warriors are a pair of players who played key roles during their 2006-07 state championship run, seniors Dexter Pearce and Shane Green.

Pearce provides athleticism in the backcourt, while Green supplies the muscle and leadership up front.

Also key for Wasilla are senior guard Tyler Johannes, junior guard Adrese LaVern and sophomore forward John Knowles.

Wasilla opens NLC tourney play against Skyview, the No. 3 team from the South, on Thursday at 1:15 p.m. See www.frontiersman.com/sports throughout the weekend for hourly updates from the tournament.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and Frontiersman sports reporter Matt Tunseth at matt.tunseth@

frontiersman.com.