Senior leads CHS boys past Moose

PALMER — Jaron Murphy isn’t the player who is going to average 20 points and lead the Colony Knights in scoring every night.

The senior guard is the guy who’s going to be among team leaders in steals and rebounds, play tenacious defense and chip in a modest 10 to 12 points per game.

“Usually, he’ll lead you in steals, and he’ll rebound from the guard spot,” Colony head coach Jeff Bowker said after Colony’s 68-43 win over the Palmer Moose at Palmer High School on Tuesday. “He’s been scoring 10 or 12 points a game. He’s certainly capable when he makes shots.”

But on Tuesday, he did put up the points. Murphy scored a game-high 26 to lead the Knights to a Northern Lights Conference win over their Valley rival.

“I was just finding some open holes,” Murphy said after the win. “Today, I guess, I just got lucky, and the stuff was falling.”

Murphy didn’t immediately know what his career his in scoring was, but said, “that’d probably be it.”

Murphy scored more than half his points in the first half, and posted 13 of Colony’s 19 points in the second quarter.

Moments after Palmer junior Mitch Swetzof his a pair of free throws to give the Moose their first — and only — lead of the game, Murphy exploded on his own personal nine-point run to turn a 16-15 deficit into a a 24-16 Colony advantage.

“The zone they were running, he was never going to be accounted for,” Bowker said. “Against that, he’s gonna have a hay day. They can’t account for him when they overload the baseline.”

Murphy’s first three buckets of the run were all set up by Colony steals, as the defense-minded Knights turned up the intensity in the second quarter.

“We upped the defensive pressure, trying to force them into some bad passes and it was successful,” Murphy said.

Murphy hit five shots — all in the paint — and was 3-for-4 from the free-throw line in the second quarter.

In fact, all of Murphy’s buckets came inside as the 5-foot-11 guard slashed to the basket, got second chances with offensive rebounds and generally overpowered the Moose inside with his now trademark 100 mph play.

“He just plays hard. He does it all the time,” Bowker said. “He plays like that in practice too.”

Murphy was sort of an unknown commodity on the basketball court a as a junior. But after helping lead the Knights to the 4A state championship game last season, teams now know what Murphy is all about.

“I think lots of teams saw him at state last year. If teams saw play against East or Juneau, they saw him play pretty good,” Bowker said. “And he’s been playing pretty good this season too. Teams in the region know who he is.”

The Knights and Moose played a tight eight minutes of basketball before Colony’s second-quarter run.

Colony earned the early lead, but late in the first quarter Palmer senior Jake Parisien hit a big three-pointer to cut the score to 12-11.

Justin Draughon tied the game moments later by hitting one of his two free-throw attempts.

“We gave up 14 points in the first quarter,” Bowker said. “That’s just not something we do. I was really frustrated about the defensive effort.”

Forward Bryce Jacobson led the Moose with 16 points in the loss. Draughon added seven.

Senior Doug Gray added 10 for Colony, while senior Josh Moseley scored seven.

On Thursday, Colony coasted to a 62-23 win over the Chugiak Mustangs in nonconference action at Colony High School.

Palmer faced Homer in the first round of a tournament at South Anchorage High School on Thursday. Results were unavailable prior to press time.

Colony 68, Palmer 43

Tuesday, Palmer High School

Colony 15-19-10-24—68

Palmer 14-10-6-13—43

Colony (68) — Huggins 1 3-5 5, J. Murphy 10 6-11 26, Larson 1 1-1 3, Palmer 1 0-0 3, Scott 0 2-3 2, Niver 2 0-0 6, Gray 2 6-6 10, Moseley 3 1-3 7, Parker 1 0-0 2, Stearman 2 0-0 4; Totals 23 19-29 68.

Palmer (43) — Draughon 3 1-2 7, Parisien 1 0-0 3, Gatto 1 0-0 2, Fullmer 1 1-2 3, Hillis 1 0-3 2, Swetzof 1 2-2 4, Bohman 0 2-2 2, Odom 2 0-2 4, Jacobson 5 6-6 16; Totals: 15 12-19 43.

Three-point field goals: Colony 3 (Niver 2), Palmer 1 (Parisien); Total fouls: Colony 18, Palmer 21.