State basketball: Wasilla defense knocks Palmer girls backward

ANCHORAGE — The Palmer Moose have been here before.

In their last meeting with rival Wasilla, Palmer played a solid first half against the defending state champions and took a lead into halftime during the regular season contest.

On Thursday, Palmer didn’t have the advantage at the break, but again put together a pair of solid quarters against Wasilla.

The Moose trailed by only three at the intermission and tied the game with a Taylor Blake three-pointer on the opening possession of the third quarter.

But then history repeated itself.

Much like Wasilla’s third-quarter rally during the last meeting, the Warriors took over during the final two periods and posted a 50-31 win over the Moose in the quarterfinal round of the ASAA/First National Bank 4A State Basketball Championships at Sullivan Arena in Anchorage.

“It takes four quarters against a good team like that,” Palmer head coach Paul Reid said after the loss, which knocks the Moose into the semifinal round where they’ll face Northern Lights Conference rival Soldotna Friday morning at 11:30 a.m. “That was kind of my message in the locker room. You’ve got to play four quarters.”

After Blake’s three-pointer that started the third, Wasilla held Palmer without a field goal until Blake put a layup in with 1:15 left in the third.

“We started executing. Defensively, we put a few stops together,” Wasilla head coach Jeannie Hebert-Truax said.

Hebert-Truax said her players settled into their game in the second half.

“I think it’s just a matter of kids calming down, realizing this is the third time we’ve played them,” Hebert-Truax said. “It’s just a matter of playing our game, not playing Palmer’s game.”

Palmer started the fourth quarter with a Caitlin Scott jumper. That shot cut Wasilla’s lead to 36-30, but once again the Warrior defense shut down the Moose. That Scott jumper was the final field goal of the night for Palmer, as Wasilla outscored the Moose 14-3 in the third.

“We struggled to score in stretches of that third and fourth quarters,” Reid said. “There were not a lot of good, clean looks for us.”

Wasilla’s win creates an all-Valley match in the semifinals. The Warriors will face rival Colony Friday at 3:15 p.m.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.

Wasilla 50, Palmer 31

4A girls quarterfinals

Thursday, Anchorage

Palmer 11-7-10-3—31

Wasilla 13-8-15-14—50

Palmer (31) — Scott 1 2-2 4, Koehn 5 0-0 13, Blake 2 0-2 4, Whitfield 1 3-4 5, Brandenburg 1 3-4 5; Totals: 10 8-12 31.

Wasilla (50) — Hutchins 5 5-6 16, Imoe 4 3-5 11, Brumbaugh 1 2-2 4, Devine 2 5-6 9, Dinkel 3 2-2 8, Burke 1 0-2 2; Totals: 16 17-23 50.

Three-point field goals: Palmer 3 (Koehn 3), Wasilla 1 (Hutchins 1); Totals: Palmer 16, Wasilla 14.