Re-U-Knighted: Colony Knights enjoy hoops homecoming

PALMER — Basketball teams at Colony High School had prepared to play the entire season in unfamiliar gyms. When repairs to damages caused by the 7.0 earthquake on Nov. 30, 2018, were finally finished and the gym was declared safe, the Colony Knights came home.

“It honestly felt different. I’m used to just not being a favorite from the crowd. Now that I feel like that, I’ve got to get used to it again,” Kyle Dearborn said.

Dearborn is part of a group of four seniors who won their 20th game on Friday night, but the first in their home gym in front of their home fans.

“I know when Julian and I were young, we’d always come and sit on that staircase. We’ve been watching for a long time,” Sullivan Menard said.

Menard leads the group that was excited for the opportunity to finally play in front of their home fans as seniors.

“Watching Sullivan’s older brothers and the people who came before us, watching what they could do, we were kind of imagining when we were in middle school that will be us in a few years and it’s come full circle,” Julian McPhail said.

The Knights earned a tough 50-38 win over the visiting West Valley Wolfpack on the gritty performance of sophomore Patrick McMahon. McMahon lead the Knights in scoring with 25 on a night when shots were not falling. The girls’ squad suffered a tough 58-50 loss to West Valley. Tori Schwantes led the Knights with 16 points.

“The girls play hard, they’ve played that way all season but a lot of people don’t get to watch them play because we played our first 19 games on the road,” Colony girls head coach Jeff Bowker said. “These seniors all move down the bench in there and I was thinking they’re never going to get to sit at the end of the bench where seniors do because we never get to practice here. Just like the chalkboard where we write our game plans up on, we haven’t been able to write our game plans where we’re at and it’s a chalkboard, but it’s our chalkboard and our team.”

The girls hung with a talented West Valley team until the fourth quarter. The Wolfpack were led by 14 points each from Ellen Silva and Sheridan Blasey. Sierra Tate chipped in 12 points for West Valley. While the Knights were excited to get their first home game in the books, many are looking forward to hosting cross-town rival Wasilla next weekend.

“I’m really pumped. I think it’s going to be a really good game. I’m excited that we get to play in our gym for senior night because at the beginning of the season we weren’t going to,” senior Chloe Simpson said.

Even though the Knights are glad to be back in their home gym, they may be stronger for having withstood playing an entire season away from home.

“Without question there are things that it did with this group that certainly can make you stronger for a state game or a region game,” Bowker said.

The boys christened the home floor with a 2019 varsity win against a West Valley team that was up for the challenge of defending a talented Knights squad. Menard has committed to DePaul University as a preferred walk-on, and he and McMahon, a sophomore sensation, have been wrecking rims in opposing gyms all year. However, the potent Colony offense was slowed by an athletic West Valley team that was up for the challenge. Cotarius Mingo led the Wolfpack with 14 points and a pair of three-pointers. The Knights struggled to find open shots all game. Behind the roar of the home crowd, the Knights pulled away in the fourth quarter with some theatrics from McPhail.

“We’re just trying to get a lot of people here make it loud, make it wild, have a lot of fun and show something to the crowd,” McPhail said.

McPhail helped to ice the game late with five of his eight points. McPhail was left open and drained a three-pointer from the corner late in the fourth. In the final minute, Menard swiped a pass and dished to McPhail open under the basket. McPhail pump-faked to get the defenders in the air and hit the basket, padding the Colony lead. The Colony superfans went wild.

“We’ve spent the last 21 games at best it’s been a neutral court but at worst it’s been going into some place of somebody who wants to beat us. Now for the first time all season it feels right, and it is right,” Colony boys head coach Tom Berg said. “We’ve always had a great student group. I expect them to be out in droves tonight and making noise and being rowdy and all those things but we’ve had one of the top ones for a while and I think will continue and our guys have always fed off of that.”

Contact Frontiersman reporter Tim Rockey at tim.rockey@frontiersman.com.