THEY'RE IN: Palmer girls grab final at-large bid

PALMER — Coaches and players from the Colony and Wasilla boys and girls basketball teams left the Northern Lights Conference Championships tournament at Wasilla High Saturday night knowing they had the state tournament ahead of them.

But things were different for the Palmer girls. After a loss to Kenai in the NLC fourth-place game that morning, the Moose were left waiting, wondering if their work during the regular season was enough to earn an at-large bid for the state tournament.

It wasn’t until Sunday evening when Palmer head coach Paul Reid finally got the answer.

And fortunately for the Moose, it was exactly the answer he was looking for.

Palmer earned the 4A girls bracket’s final at-large bid, and is part of the eight-team state tournament field.

“We’re excited. We’ve kind of been waiting on pins and needles,” Reid said Sunday night after learning his team had qualified for the tourney, which stars March 15 at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage.

This is the first year the Alaska Schools Activities Association has set aside two at-large bids for its 4A tourney. The NLC and Anchorage-based Cook Inlet Conference had each received three automatic bids in the past. But each conference lost a bid this year to make room for the at-large selections, which were decided by the Winning Percentage Index, the formula ASAA uses to rank its teams.

Palmer, which enters the tourney as the eighth seed, edged North Pole and NLC rival Kenai by just more than a percentage point in the WPI to qualify for the tourney. Ironically, Kenai was the team that beat Palmer in the fourth-place game.

Despite that loss to Kenai Saturday, Palmer’s entire season of work included key wins that pushed its WPI ahead of teams like North Pole and the Kards. The Moose beat West Valley and West Anchorage, a pair of state qualifiers, earlier in the season.

The Moose will see a familiar rival in the state tourney, opening play against defending state champion and No. 1 seed Wasilla March 15 at 6:45 p.m.

“We’re excited to play Wasilla,” Reid said.

Monday, Wasilla head coach Jeannie Hebert-Truax said she had a hunch her team might see the Moose in the first round.

“You play who you’ve got to play,” Hebert-Truax said.

Four NLC teams qualified for the state tourney. Wasilla beat Soldotna to win the NLC title, and both teams earned automatic bids for the state tournament. Colony, seeded fifth in the state, also earned an at-large bid. Hebert-Truax was surprised to see all four NLC teams on the top half of the bracket. Colony meets fourth-seeded Soldotna March 15 at 1:15 p.m.

After Colony finished third in the NLC tournament, Colony head coach Jeff Bowker said he knew, regardless of draw, the Knights would have a tough first-round opponent.

“We’re probably going to have to play someone we haven’t beat before,” Bowker said.

CIC champion Dimond, Southeast champion Juneau-Douglas, MAC champion West Valley and CIC runner-up West Anchorage share the bottom half of the bracket. West plays West Valley March 15 at 11:30 a.m. and Dimond faces Juneau March 15 at 8:30 p.m.

Wasilla is also a No. 1 seed on the boys side. The Warriors, who won their fourth straight NLC title on Saturday, will open tourney play March 15 at 5 p.m. against No. 8 seed Lathrop, the MAC champion.

Monday, Wasilla head coach Ryan Engebretsen said the Warriors were actually more concerned with figuring out the time of their first-round game rather than their first-round opponent.

“It wasn’t so much about who we matched up against, as much as finding out the time of our game. We wanted to start practicing, knowing what time we play and practice accordingly,” Engebretsen said. “I love our game time. I’ll take 5 p.m. in a heartbeat.”

Juneau-Douglas and fourth-seeded Service share the top side of the bracket and meet March 15 at 8 a.m.

Both Wasilla and Colony earned automatic bids to the state tourney by advancing to the NLC title game. The NLC runner-up Knights have the No. 6 seed and will open against defending state champion Bartlett March 15 at 9:45 a.m.

“Any time you get to where there’s eight teams left, you’re going to see a good basketball team,” Colony head coach Tom Berg said. “Bartlett is the defending state champions and they’re going to be the state champions until we crown a new one.”

Bartlett is the CIC runner-up.

Kenai and second-seeded Dimond are also on the bottom half of the bracket. Dimond is the CIC champion. Kenai earned an at-large bid after finishing third in the NLC tourney.

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