Off break, Colony girls prepare to defend title

MAT-SU — After a third place finish in Las Vegas over the winter break, the defending state champion Colony girls basketball team returns to Alaska home courts this week in the East T-Bird Classic held in Anchorage.

Colony coach Don Witzel said there have been some problems with tournament scheduling, and as of Monday he said the tournament “isn’t looking very much like a tournament.”

“I’m not quite sure how the whole thing is going to play out,” Witzel said. “I know we have pairings against teams from out of our conference, but I don’t know how the tournament is going to come to any conclusion.”

Only six teams are slated to play in the tournament, Witzel said, and he’s not sure if there will be a concluding final game or if the event will just require teams to play their three allotted games.

What Witzel does know is that Colony has games against Juneau, Chugiak and Ketchikan, and each game presents a challenge.

“We do have three great games slated for us,” Witzel said. “All three of those teams are three of the better teams in state.”

Colony returns four of their starters from their 2008 championship run, and Witzel said that his girls know that the competition will be out to get them.

“We’ve told the girls that we’re back to being the target,” Witzel said. “Any team is going to come out and play that much harder against us. Teams would love to knock us off.”

Colony’s first game of the tournament is Thursday evening against Juneau at 5:45, held at East High School.

Contact Tyson Alger at 352-2273 or sports@frontiersman.com.