Prep basketball: Knights eager to make another run at the state title

PALMER — Despite having nearly his entire lineup back for another season, Colony head coach Jeff Bowker doesn’t think the Knights will have a berth in this year’s state tournament handed to them.

“I told our guys we’re probably the third or fourth best team in the league right now,” Bowker said during the Valley Jamboree at Palmer High School on Saturday.

While the team’s coach may want to temper expectations for the Knights, who lost in last year’s Class 4A state championship game to the Wasilla Warriors, there’s no doubt the Knights will be in the Northern Lights Conference mix this season.

Colony will use a deep rotation that includes seven seniors this season, all of whom played meaningful minutes in that championship contest. Six of those players were with the Knights, while a seventh, center Matt Stearman, transferred to Colony from Wasilla this year.

Bowker said there’s no doubt that his team’s experience will be a big plus this season.

“The strength should be that they’re all back,” Bowker said.

Leading the way for the Knights will be senior guard Doug Gray, one of the state’s most accurate outside shooters and a second-team all-state performer a year ago.

Gray won’t be the only familiar face on the floor for the Knights. Also back are senior forwards Grant Niver and Josh Moseley, along with senior guards Antone Zagars, Cody Huggins and Jaron Murphy. They’ll be joined in the rotation by junior forward Chris Scott and sophomore guard John Palmer, who’ll likely handle most of the duties at the point.

Last season, Colony used clutch outside shooting and tenacious defense to make an unexpected run into both the NLC and state title games, where they lost twice to Wasilla. In order to have similar success, Bowker said his team will have to make sure and limit turnovers and keep the opposition off the glass.

“So far we’ve been turning the ball over a lot, been careless with the ball,” he said. “And we’ll continue to have to work on rebounding.”

Bowker said he’s expecting a battle nearly every night in the NLC, and said just because the Knights have a top group of players returning doesn’t mean they’ll waltz through the conference schedule.

“Our region is loaded. Kenai has their whole group back and they beat us last year with the same group, that’s a battle. You’ve got the defending state champs in our league, that’s a battle, and I think Palmer is going to be better than they were last year,” Bowker said.

Like in previous seasons, Bowker said the most important thing for his team to do this year will be to show improvement as the season progresses.

“Anyone who knows me knows that every year we always have the same expectations,” he said.

That’s to work hard and work toward the two most important dates of the season — March 8 and March 22 — when the Northern Lights and state championship games are scheduled to tip off.

“That’s what we think about.”

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@frontiersman.com