Late effort lifts Knights

ANCHORAGE — Bartlett held Colony senior Hayden Summers scoreless for more than 31 minutes Monday. But Summers scored the points that mattered the most.

Summers snagged an offensive rebound and put back the game-winner with 8.7 seconds left to lift the Knights to a 54-53 victory over the Golden Bears during the first round of the ASAA/First National Bank 4A State Championships at the Sullivan Arena Monday morning.

“What a clutch basket,” Colony senior captain John Palmer said after the win, which moved the Knights into a semifinal date Tuesday evening with 4A power West Anchorage.

Bartlett senior Matthew Johnson used a rebound and put-back of his own seconds earlier to give the Bears the 53-52 lead. Following the Johnson go-ahead lay-in, Colony senior Scott Herman drove the lane and missed on a short jumper, but Summers was right there to keep the possession alive and net the game-winner.

“He stuck in there,” Colony head coach Jeff Bowker said.

It was the only basket of the morning for Summers, who also pulled down five rebounds in the win, but it was the shot that put the Knights one win away from their third trip to the state championship game since 2005.

“As long as my team wins, I don’t care if I score any points,” Summers said.

Summers’ heroics followed a late Bartlett push. The Golden Bears outscored Colony 14-7 during the fourth, getting most of those points during a 10-point run.

John Palmer sparked the Knights in the second half, scoring 12 of his 14 points in the third quarter. Palmer’s efforts helped the Knights take a 49-39 lead early in the fourth. But the Golden Bears climbed back into the contest with that 10-point run through the first three minutes of the final frame.

The Bears hit two of their six three-pointers of the game during that stretch. Senior Cyrus Chenault nailed a three to cut Colony’s lead to 49-42, and Malik King followed with another long shot on the following possession to trim the Knights’ lead to four.

Jordan Blount-O’Conner snagged a steal and took it down the court to the basket to tie the score at 49-49 with just less than six minutes left in regulation.

But in the final two minutes, a pair of Colony’s unsung heroes provided enough offense to give the Knights the win. Junior Kenyon DePriest went to the basket, got the lay-in and drew a foul with just about two minutes left in regulation. DePriest hit the ensuring free throw, and his three-point play gave Colony the 52-49 lead. Summers capped the win with his game-winner.

“It was a total team effort,” Bowker said. “Everyone contributed to what we needed to do.”

Following Summers’ put-back, Bartlett still had one more shot at victory. King took the inbound pass and raced down the court, pulled up at the right-wing three-point line and sent the attempt flying. The ball bounced off the back iron, setting off a wild Colony celebration.

“It felt like it was going in,” said King, who knelt dejectedly on the court for several seconds following the miss, pounding his fist on the ground in disbelief.

Just before the senior fired his near game-winner, a buzzer at the adjoining court at the Sullivan Arena sounded, which King said may have put a slight hitch in his jumper.

“It threw me off totally,” King said.

Bartlett was arguably the hottest team coming into the boys 4A tourney following a late-season stretch that included Cook Inlet Conference tournament wins over the CIC’s top two seeds, West and Dimond, and a conference championship. The Bears used a run to take a double-digit lead in the first half, and another to erase Colony’s double-digit advantage in the second half. But the Knights continued to find ways to work themselves into a lead.

“We knew we were going to have a tough game,” Bartlett head coach Vernon Lindo said. “They execute their offense very well and they play that collapsing defense.”

Colony, led by the outside shooting of Herman, jumped out to an early lead and used a 12-2 run to take a 27-27 tie into the half. Herman hit four three-pointers and scored 12 of his game-high 16 in the first half.

The first two quarters also set a tone for a game that featured a number of back-and-forth runs.

“Most intense games are like that, so I expected that,” Palmer said.

Palmer said the Knights also knew what the Bears are capable of.

“They’re a team that can score 90 points a game,” Palmer said. “We just tried to hold them to a game that’s close to our pace.”

After being held to only two points during the first half, Palmer — the two-time reigning Northern Lights Conference Player of the Year — took over in the third quarter. After Herman tied the score at 33-33, Palmer went on a six-point run by himself to give the Knights the 39-33 advantage.

Sophomore Jared Turner found a wide-open Palmer, well behind the three-point line, and the senior captain nailed the three-pointer. Palmer followed by grabbing a steal and taking it to the basket for another score.

“I was attacking the basket more,” Palmer said.

The victory over the Bears was the second of the season for the Knights. Colony edged Bartlett 61-58 in overtime in February at Colony High School.

Palmer said knowing the Knights had already beaten the Bears this season helped.

“I think it gave us a lot of confidence,” Palmer said.

That prior meeting, which included Herman’s buzzer-beating three-pointer that forced overtime, also gave the Knights an idea of what to expect Monday.

“At halftime, I told the guys this is the exact game we played at our house,” Bowker said. “We had to hit a shot to put it into (overtime). This time we had to hit a shot to win.”

West Anchorage, the top seed in the bracket, easily moved into the semifinals with a 79-47 win over Lathrop.

The Eagles and Knights will tip off Tuesday at 6:45 p.m. at the Sullivan. Palmer, a four-year starter for the Knights, said Colony has not faced West during his high school career. The last time the two teams met was in the 2005 state title game.

Colony 54, Bartlett 53

4A quarterfinals

Monday, Sullivan Arena

Bartlett 17-10-12-14—53

Colony 13-14-20-7—54

Bartlett (53) — Chenault 2 1-1 6, Blount-O’Connor 4 0-0 9, King 5 1-1 14, Harris 3 0-2 6, Sherman-Newsome 7 2-4 16, Johnson 1 0-0 2; Totals 22 4-8 53.

Colony (54) — Eisenhower 1 2-2 5, Turner 1 0-0 2, McCann 1 0-0 2, Palmer 5 3-3 14, Herman 5 2-2 16, DePriest 2 1-1 5, Ray 4 0-0 8, Summers 1 0-0 2; Totals 20 8-8 54.

3-point field goals: Bartlett 5 (King 3),Colony 6 (Herman 4); Rebounds: Bartlett 37 (Sherman-Newsome 7), Colony 30 (Herman 6); Assists: Bartlett 9 (Harris 4), Colony 10 (Palmer 3); Total fouls: Bartlett 13, Colony 12; Fouled out: none.