Knights edge rival Warriors, earn 4A girls state title

ANCHORAGE — In a game full of swings, the Colony Knights landed the final punch.

Colony thwarted a late Wasilla rally and earned a 44-41 win over the Warriors during the ASAA/First National Bank 4A Girls State Basketball Championships title game Saturday evening at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage.

Colony senior Tonya Karpow capped her career in an unforgettable way, knocking down a pair of free throws with 12.4 seconds left. Karpow’s free throws and one more stop helped give Colony its first girls basketball state title since 2008. A Wasilla three-point attempt at the buzzer bounced off the front of the rim.

“First, my free throws. I’ve got to make them. We’ve got to go. And then when she shot that buzzer-beater, I was like, we finally did it,” Karpow said of her thoughts during the final moments after the win. “We accomplished our goal.”

Colony was able to survive a valiant Wasilla rally in the final moments. The Knights led by seven with just a minute left, but Wasilla junior Kate Jackson got the bucket, drew the foul and hit the ensuing free throw with 47 seconds left to cut Colony’s lead to 42-38.

And the Warriors followed with another big shot.

Wasilla senior Mylee Anderson buried a three with 29 seconds remaining to make it a one-point game. But the Warriors were not able to find the game-tying or go-ahead score.

“It was a grind,” Karpow said of the win. “We had to just go do it.”

Both teams held double-digit leads at points during the 32-minute roller-coaster ride on the floor.

“It was a game of runs for sure,” Colony head coach Tom Berg said.

Wasilla junior Savannah Kroon hit a jumper with 5:51 left in the second quarter to give the Warriors a 19-7 advantage. The 12-point lead was their largest of the day.

But Colony closed the half on a 16-3 run.

“I feel like this game was a testament to how this whole journey has been,” Colony senior Hallie Clark said. “It started a little rough, but we didn’t give up. In the end, we came out on top.”

Clark, who was recently named the Gatorade Alaska Girls Basketball Player of the Year, sparked the run with a three-pointer at the 5:15 mark.

“They never gave up. They kept fighting,” Berg said.

Karpow also hit shots for the Knights in the first half. The senior scored five of Colony’s first seven points, and knocked down her second three-pointer of the day with 44 seconds left in the first half. That gave Colony its first lead of the game, at 23-21.

“Tonya’s been absolutely locked in since the Dimond tournament,” Berg said. “She was terrific last night and terrific tonight.”

Karpow scored a game-high 20 points in the win. She shot 7 of 11 from the field and 3 of 4 from beyond the arc. But Karpow was big for the Knights on both ends of the floor.

“I feel like people pay attention to the offense, but what she’s doing on defense is really amazing,” Clark said.

Karpow’s job on defense, just as it has been throughout her career, the unenviable task of trying to slow down Wasilla’s 6-foot-5 power Layla Hays, a Division I commit who will play basketball at Iowa next year.

“She has a tough matchup; 6-5 is no joke,” Clark said.

The Knights held Hays to a dozen on Saturday. Hays had 21 against Dimond in the first round and 17 in the semifinal win over Mountain City Christian.

“Layla’s great, and there’s no answer. You’re just trying to slow her down,” Berg said.

Colony also had to worry about the other half of Wasilla’s duo of sensational seniors, Anderson, who will play at UAA next year.

“They are two really good players, two monsters who deserve everything they get,” Berg said of Hays and Anderson.

Anderson led Wasilla with 16 points, Hays also grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.

Hays had Wasilla’s first two buckets of the game, and Hays and Anderson combined to score Wasilla’s first 10 points. The only other basket of the quarter was a late Mielee Merchant layup set up with an Anderson assist.

Merchant and Jackson added five points each for Wasilla.

Sophomore Annelise Larsen was also key for Colony, contributing eight points and a team-high seven rebounds.

“I feel like she really stepped up. Her and (Jericho Wuestenberg) really stepped up,” Karpow said.

Wuestenberg, another sophomore, added five points and five rebounds. She also hit a free throw with 2:46 left in the game.

“I knew all along this team is special, this group is special,” Clark said. “I knew if we all showed up, we’d be tough to beat. It was a team win.”

With the win, Colony earned a girls state basketball title for the first time since beating Chugiak in the 2008 final. It comes in Berg’s first year as the head coach of the girls team. Berg, a 1997 graduate of Colony High, coached both Colony basketball programs this year. He has been the head coach of the boys team since 2010. Overall, as a head coach or an assistant, he has been coaching basketball at CHS for more than two decades. This is his first state title as a head coach.

“I’ve been chasing this for a little while,” Berg said. “Unbelievable group of kids. I love that they bought in. It doesn’t always happen with a new coach. It takes some time, But they bought in early.”

The championship was the fifth in school history, with other titles in 1995, 1997 and 1998. Colony last appeared in the championship game in 2014.

Wasilla was looking for its ninth girls basketball state title in school history, and its second straight. Longtime Warriors head coach Jeannie Henert-Truax, who earned her state-record 600th career win this season, has led the Warriors to the state title game 14 times, She has seven championships. Hays and Anderson helped lead the Warriors to a state championship game in each of their four years with the program.

Contact Frontiersman managing editor Jeremiah Bartz at editor@frontiersman.com.