NLC tourney: Wasilla girls win, boys fall

WASILLA — Sheridan Green helped keep the streak alive for the Wasilla Warriors.

Green hit a go-ahead three-pointer with 10 seconds left in regulation, and Wasilla held on for a 49-47 win over rival Colony during the Northern Lights Conference Championships girls semifinals Friday at Soldotna High School.

Green’s three was part of a five-point run that helped move Wasilla into the NLC title game for the fifth straight year. The four-time defending champions will face top-seeded Soldotna in the championship game Saturday at 6 p.m. at SoHi.

Harmony McSorley, who scored a game-high 18 for the Warriors, hit a pair of free throws late to cut Colony’s lead to 47-46. Wasilla needed the 5-0 run to answer a three-pointer by Colony’s Madison Dunlop that gave the Knights a 47-44 lead with 2:05 left to play.

Second-seeded Wasilla and third-seeded Colony were tied 18-18 at the half. Colony took a 35-34 lead into the fourth quarter.

McSorley and Colony’s Hannah Duguid each scored a game-high 18. Green added nine points for Wasilla and Bella Hays chipped in eight. Abby Kenley added seven for the Knights.

Colony will now play the winner of the Palmer-Kodiak matchup in the third-place game.

SoHi boys upset defending state champs

The Soldotna boys quenched one nine-year drought Friday night with a wild 43-41 semifinal win over Wasilla in the Northern Lights Conference tournament.

Saturday the Stars will attempt to snap a much longer dry spell.

Soldotna escaped with the narrow NLC semifinal victory Friday over the defending Class 4A state champion Warriors on a late go-ahead bucket by Brock Kant to secure the Stars' first state tournament spot since 2010. The win advanced SoHi to Saturday's region championship tilt, which the Stars haven't won since 1991.

"The basketball gods were with us tonight," Kant said after the game.

The boys win preceded a dominating victory for the SoHi girls, who also punched their ticket to state with a 62-22 win over Palmer. The girls team returns to state for the first time in five years.

SoHi boys head coach Nolan Rose emerged from the postgame locker room soaked from a celebratory water dump and said the win represented the next step the basketball program had to take in a process.

"To beat (the defending state champs) is awesome," Rose said. "We don't necessarily have the strongest basketball tradition, everyone knows we're a football powerhouse, so we're trying to build that.

We've (taken) our lumps. We just keep getting better each year."

Kant said the senior class has waited a long time for the chance to play at the state tournament.

"We've worked all season for this, all offseason, all four years," Kant said. "We worked our butts off all season, and it's great to get the win."

The Soldotna win came on a day of upsets. Earlier Friday, fifth-seeded Palmer beat top-seeded Colony 58-55.

The Colony loss looms large for the defending state champs. Wasilla has a shot to return to the big dance on an at-large bid, but with Colony (22-3 overall regular season) appearing to be in line for that spot, the reigning champs may be done.

"I don't know if we have a shot now with Colony getting upset," said Wasilla head coach Ryan Engebretsen. "It's a very slim chance if anything that we get an at-large bid."

SoHi junior Jersey Truesdell poured in a game-high 20 points for Soldotna while teammate Ray Chumley added 10. Wasilla senior Daniel Headdings, who was announced as co-MVP of the conference, led the Warriors with 18 points but only had six after halftime after tallying 10 in the first quarter.

Tied at 41 apiece with 9.2 seconds left, the final sequence began with SoHi inbounding along its own baseline. Chumley found Mekhai Rich at the top of the key, who dumped it off to Truesdell, who saw a wide-open Kant in the paint for the easy layup and the lead with four seconds remaining.

"My teammate Jersey set me up great," Kant said. "We ran a great play coming out of bounds, and I was just open. My teammate got it to me perfect and I just had to execute."

Wasilla had one last shot to win it, but had to inbound the ball from across court and couldn't get close enough in time for a decent look, although Wasilla's Luke Devine gave it all he had with a running 3-point attempt.

Devine originally had Kant guarded but moved out on Truesdell, leaving Kant open in the paint for the go-ahead bucket.

"To Jersey's credit, because he's been such a clutch player for us all year, he didn't take the shot," Rose said. "He had the poise and vision to find Brock underneath and make a great pass and Brock knocked it in."

Engebretsen said while the loss stings, he can take solace that the senior class was able to enjoy a well-earned state title from 2017-18.

"My seniors that were on the roster last year, the state championship that they won last year will never be taken from them," Engebretsen said. "Obviously they wanted to give themselves a chance to repeat, but kudos to Soldotna for playing hard and finding a way."

Wasilla got the upper hand early in the game and led 14-4 in the first quarter. SoHi hung around and trailed 23-17 at halftime.

Truesdell and Chumley both got hot in the third quarter with a trio of 3's that gave SoHi its first lead with 4:45 left in the quarter, and Kant added a triple of his own to help in the barrage.

SoHi led by four early in the fourth quarter but Wasilla came back with a gametying bucket from Headdings with 4:20 remaining. Truesdell hit a trey and a jumper to put SoHi up 41-36 with 1:30 left, but the Warriors answered right back to tie it again at 41-all with 37.7 seconds remaining, thanks to a pair of made foul shots from Devine.

That all set up the late drama for the Stars.

Contact the Frontiersman at sports@frontiersman.com. Peninsula Clarion sports reporter Joey Klecka contributed to this report.