Knights, Warriors to play for the 4A girls hoops state title after big wins in the semis

Call it Colony-Wasilla 5.

The Colony Knights and Wasilla Warriors will meet for the fifth time this season, and this time the Valley rivals will be playing for a state championship. Both Mat-Su programs rolled to double-digit wins during the girls semifinal round of the ASAA/First National Bank 4A State Championships Friday at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage.

Top-seeded Colony used a huge second half to cruise past fourth-seeded Thunder Mountain 69-35. Second-seeded Wasilla was strong in the first two quarters and beat third-seeded Mountain City Christian 54-43.

Colony and Wasilla will play for the girls state crown Saturday at 5:30 p.m. at the Alaska Airlines Center.

The Knights and Warriors have already played four times this year. Colony was 3-0 against Wasilla during the regular season, but the Warriors beat the Knights 69-46 in the Northern Lights Conference Championship game.

“Wasilla, they’re tough. We’ve got to focus on locking in tomorrow. If we play team basketball, I feel like we’re going to do good things,” Colony junior Hallie Clark told the NHFS Network after the Knights win.

After a close first half, Colony led 20-16 at the break, the Knights outscored Thunder Mountain 49-19 during the final two quarters.

Kerra Baxter and Cailynn Baxter scored 11 each for the Falcons, and accounted for 22 of Thunder Mountain’s 35 total points.

“They’re a real good team. They’re tough to defend. They’ve got those two really good posts,” Clark said of the Baxters.

Clark and Tonya Karpow led the Knights with 19 points each. Colony pushed the ball, scoring 28 in the third and closing the game on a 21-7 run.

“The whole season we’ve been working on pushing the ball,” Clark said. “We have a really fast team.”

Clark and Jericho Wiestemberg both notched double-doubles in the win. Karpow had 19 points and 12 rebounds. Wiestemberg finished with 10 points and 12 boards.

Wasilla used a 33-point first half to beat Mountain City Christian for the fourth time this season.

“It’s hard to beat a team four times,” Wasilla head coach Jeannie Hebert-Truax told the NFHS Network after her team’s win. “I’m so proud of my kids. They have some great talent over there. I think we frustrated them in the first half, didn’t let them do what they wanted to do.”

Junior Mylee Anderson continued her stellar state tournament with 27 points and 10 rebounds. She hit 9 of 16 from the floor and 9 of 12 from the free throw line.

Mielee Merchant also sparked the Warriors early with a pair of three-pointers during the first four minutes of the game. Layla Hays had a game-high 11 rebounds.

A trio of Valley teams saw their seasons come to an end in consolation semifinal action. West Anchorage got past Palmer 69-62 and West Valley beat Wasilla 57-42 in the 4A elimination round.

Logan Rolston led the Moose with 18 points during the loss to the Eagles. Antonio Sheldon added 15. Nolan Garner notched a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds.

Gavin Morris finished with nine points and nine rebounds against West Valley, and Barak Wagle also added nine.

Seward eliminated Houston 51-43 in the 3A boys tourney Thursday.

James Taylor led the Hawks with 15 and Noah Whitted scored 11.

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