State basketball tourney notebook

Looking to the future

The three 4A girls basketball coaches took steps toward the future in the state tournament, all while still playing in the present.

As the tournament progressed, several young bench players for Colony, Palmer and Wasilla saw significant action, for one reason or another, and that could mean they will be ready for next years state tournament.

In the semifinals, freshman Marsha Schirack of Wasilla played almost five minutes, guarding Jessica Moore for much of the time. Colonys Carly Thaggard and McKenzie Menard played a lot of minutes, and Palmers Tai-Lani Benton and Sarah Bergeron got action as well.

Look to all of those players to make contributions to their teams next year, as well.

Overheard

Several college scouts sat courtside for the entire tournament, keeping track of different players and how they performed.

After watching one guard circle around the court several times, without passing the ball, one scout turned to the other with one observation.

Dribbling is a lot like candy a little bit of it is sweet. Really sweet. But too much of it, and everybody on the court gets sick, he said.

Tournament shake-up

The 4A boys tournament could have been a lot different, if not for one single shot. In the opening round, Dimonds Brian Montablo hit a buzzer beater to send his Lynx into the semifinals. If the shot had not gone in, Lathrop would have advanced.

Dimond ended up playing for the state title, while Lathrop beat Wasilla in the first round of the consolation bracket. How different would things have been had Montablo not hit that shot? Well never know.

Big runs

The Palmer girls put together scoring runs of 25-2, 14-0 and 13-0 in their three games against Ketchikan, East and Palmer.

Spreading the wealth

In their final two games of the tournament, the third-place Houston Hawks used every single player on their roster.

In the first round, a 51-48 victory over Barrow, three players did not play. But against Valdez and Monroe, coach Curt Youngberg used every player. All but one player scored a point in the tournament.

A passer, not a shooter

Wasilla point guard Scott Faeo played nearly 48 minutes in two games, handling the ball and running the offense for the Warriors. Throughout the course of two games, however, he did not take a single shot, from the field or from the line.

He had five assists and a couple of rebounds for the Warriors to help out in ways other than just scoring.

Rebounding machine who scores

Dont compare Colonys Jessica Moore with Dennis Rodman anytime soon. She grabs a lot of rebounds, but unlike Rodman, Moore has the scorers touch as well.

She hauled down 14, 18 and 13 rebounds in three games for a tournament-leading average of 15 per game.

When you also see that she averaged 19.3 points per game in the tournament, you find out why the University of Connecticut is so enthused about the Colony senior.Photo: Wasillas Renaye Lavin tries to drive the baseline as Colonys Amber Tubbs defends her.Photo by GENE JANSEN.