Valley prep basketball squads cap regular season

Layla Hays scored 18 points to lead Wasilla to a 58-42 girls basketball win over Colony Friday night at Colony High School.

Hays scored eight points in both the second and fourth quarters. Ally Shelley led Colony with 15 points. Hallie Clark scored 14 points for the Knights.

The Colony boys beat Wasilla 74-60. Jayce Underwood scored a game-hgh 24 for the Knights. Kace Luce had 22, and Zach Daniel finished with 15.

Parker Kroon led Wasilla with 19 points. Arthur Adams added 13, and Jaidus Huffman pitched in 11.

Palmer split with Soldotna on the road The Palmer boys held on for a tight win to notch their first conference win of the season.

With a minute left, Antonio Sheldon hit a 3-pointer to put Palmer up 50-47. Malik Balmes then put the Moose up 52-45 with a pair of foul shots with 33 seconds left.

Corbett came right back with a 3-pointer for a 52-50 game with 27 seconds left. SoHi got a steal with 18 seconds left, and that led to Andrew Pieh making 1 of 2 from the foul line for a 52-51 game with 12 seconds left. Balmes made 3 of 4 from the charity stripe in the final 10 seconds to seal it.

The Soldotna girls beat the Moose 53-35.

Colony, Palmer and Wasilla now move ahead to the Northern Lights Conference Championships, which start Thursday in Kodiak.

Colony is the No. 1 seed in the boys bracket and received a first-round bye alongside second-seeded Anchorage Christian.

Third-seeded Wasilla meets sixth-seeded Palmer in the first round, Thursday and 3 p.m. The winner plays ACS Friday.

Colony faces either fourth-seeded Kodiak or fifth-seeded Soldotna on Friday.

The championship game is Saturday at 5 p.m.

ACS is the top seed in the girls bracket and have a first-round bye, in addition to second-seeded Wasilla. Colony is the third seed and plays hosty Kodiak Thursday at 8:15 p.m. Fourth-seeded Soldotna meets fifth-seeded Palmer Thursday at 4:45 p.m. ACS will play the Palmer-SoHi winner and Wasilla meets the Colony-Kodiak winner Friday in the semifinals.

The championship game is Saturday at 6:45 p.m.

The Houston boys scored a pair of road wins on the Kenai Peninsula.

The Hawks beat Nikiski 86-42. Hayden Howard erupted for 41 points. Cole Taylor added 22.

Taylor used a double-double to help Houston beat Homer 84-54. He finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Howard led the Hawks with 29.

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