Rivals meet on final day of tourney

WASILLA — When the Colony Knights accepted the invitation to compete in the 2012 Doc Larson’s Roundball Classic, head coach Tom Berg said there was one catch.

He preferred his team not play a Northern Lights Conference opponent, especially a Valley rival. But after a series of changes Friday night and early Saturday morning, Berg suddenly found his squad facing not only an NLC foe, but one of Colony’s biggest rivals, the host Wasilla Warriors.

Within about a 12-hour span, Berg’s Knights faced the potential of playing Xaverian (N.Y.), Bartlett and Wasilla. But despite the constant string of curve balls, the Knights prevailed to score a 60-39 win over the Warriors Saturday afternoon at Wasilla High.

The Roundball Classic features six boys teams and four girls teams with a round-robin format. Through the first two days of the tournament, a pair of teams from the Lower 48 (Xaverian of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Seigel High from Tennessee) owned identical 2-0 records heading into the final day of competition. Xaverian was originally slated to face Colony and Seigel was matched against Wasilla. Bartlett and Chugiak were scheduled to open the tourney action Saturday.

Friday evening, tournament officials made the decision to alter the Day 3 schedule to create a true championship game, and crown one 3-0 team rather than potentially dealing with a string of tiebreakers.

The schedule was changed with Xaverian meeting Seigel in the tourney nightcap. Colony would then face Bartlett and Wasilla would host Chugiak.

After the altered schedule was proposed, not all of the teams were on board with the changes. In order to allow all six teams to hit the court Saturday, Wasilla head coach Ryan Engebretsen reluctantly called Berg with a third plan — a Wasilla-Colony matchup.

“I’ll be honest. I love this tournament, but I usually say, hey (I don’t want to play any) Region III teams, especially a Valley school. You play in spring league, play in fall league. You could play sometimes four times a year. I usually say, let’s play someone else,” Berg said. “But at this same time, I knew this was the right thing to do.”

With the changes, local fans were treating to a exciting final match, with Siegel winning the Roudball Classic title with a 67-57 victory over Xaverian.

“Everybody who knows basketball wanted to see those two teams play,” Berg said.

Colony guard Joe Gray shot at least 50 percent from behind the arc for the second time in three days to lead the Knights to the win over the Warriors. Gray, who drained 4 of 8 three-point attempts, scored a game-high 18 in the victory.

“Joe was terrific. He’s put a ton of time in the offseason and is very deserving,” Berg said of Gray.

Gray, who scored a dozen points against Chugiak, was named all-tournament.

“The kid’s a knock-down shooter, pure and simple,” Berg said. “We work really hard at the defensive end.”

Hunter Eisenhower added 13 points in the win, and Damien Fulp chipped in nine. Fulp hit a pair of early three-pointers as Colony started the game on an 8-0 run.

Wasilla’s Dane Kuiper also scored a game-best 18 for the Warriors.

Kuiper and Colony’s Antonio Bush were also named all-tourney.

Colony 60, Wasilla 39

Saturday, Wasilla

Colony 15-14-19-12—60

Wasilla 9-11-8-11—39

Colony (60) — Compton 2 2-3 6, Gray 6 2-2 18, Fulp 2 3-4 9, Menard 1 0-0 2, Umbarger 3 0-0 6, Huffman 1 0-0 2, Dinkel 1 0-0 2, Bush 1 0-0 2, Eisenhower 5 2-2 13; Totals: 22 9-11 60

Wasilla (39) — Baham 1 0-0 2, Brown 1 2-4 5, Krueger 2 1-2 5, Kuiper 7 4-4 18, Garnett 0 2-4 2, McGregor 1 1-4 3, Dawkins 2 0-0 4; Totals: 14 10-18 39.

Colony 82, Chugiak 48

Friday, Wasilla

Colony 17-33-23-9—82

Chugiak 11-16-10-11—48

Colony (82) — Compton 1 0-0 2, Chamblee 1 0-0 3, West 2 0-0 4, Gray 5 0-0 12, Fulp 5 2-2 14, Menard 4 1-2 9, Umbarger 3 0-1 6, Huffman 2 0-0 4, Dinkel 3 0-1 7, Bush 4 0-2 8, Eisenhower 5 0-0 13; Totals: 35 3-11 82

Chugiak (48) — P. Fullmer 8 3-7 21, Burgess 1 2-4 4, Goward 1 1-1 3, Capers 0 1-2 1, S. Fullmer 5 0-1 11, Brownlee 4 0-0 8; Totals: 19 7-15 48.

Xaverian (NY) 59,

Wasilla 40

Friday, Wasilla

Xaverian 16-134-16-14—59

Wasilla 7-9-10-14—40

Xaverian (59) — Faison 5 0-2 10, Boczar 1 0-0 2, Rossiter 2 1-2 5, Lambert 11 0-0 27, Isaac 2 0-0 5, Charles 1 0-0 2, Slue-Brown 1 1-1 3, Laney 2 0-0 4, Kemp 0 1-2 1; Totals: 25 3-7 59

Wasilla (40) — Brown 1 1-2 3, Krueger 1 2-2 4, Kuiper 7 5-8 22, McGregor 4 3-4 11; Totals: 13 10-14 40.