Valley teams cap regular season

The Mountain City Christian Lions hit a few big shots from beyond the arc in the second half, but the Colony Knights drilled the one that counted.

Colony’s Bella Shelley knocked down a three at the buzzer to lift the Knights to a 43-41 girls basketball win over the Lions in a key late regular season girls basketball game Thursday evening at Colony High School.

Shelley scored six points in the game. She was also 3-of-5 from the free throw line. After the Knights called a time out with 4.1 seconds left in regulation, Shelley took a quick pass from across the zone and had an open look from the left side.

Keelie Kronberger scored half of Mountain City’s 12 points in the fourth. She hit a pair of free throws with 6.9 seconds left in the game to give MCS the 41-40 lead. Kronberger led MCC with 14.

Morgan Ainsworth led Colony with 10 in the win. Annelise Larson added nine.

Colony led 20-19 at the half, and pushed its lead to seven in the third quarter.

Zoe Jones hit a three for MCC and sparked an 11-3 run that tied the game at 32 late in the third.

The Colony boys followed with a 75-49 win over the Lions.

Charlie Gardner led Colony with 22. Layton Lockard had 17. Jackson Ainsworth chipped in a dozen. Tayden Karpow finished with 11.

The Colony boys and girls wrapped up their regular seasons with two-game home sweeps against Kodiak over the weekend. The girls earned wins of 74-23 and 64-27. The boys beat the Bears 73-32 and 81-41.

The Wasilla girls clinched first place in the regular season and the top seed in the upcoming Northern Lights Conference Championships with a 72-27 win over the Palmer Moose Thursday night at Palmer High.

Kinley Lynch scored 19 to lead the Warriors. Meilee Merchant added 17. Loren Nichols scored seven for Palmer.

Wasilla finished the regular season at 9-1. Colony is second at 8-2. MCC follows at 7-3. Palmer sits at 2-8.

Grace Christian, Wasilla and Colony finished in a three-way tie at the top of the NLC boys standings at 10-2. Palmer is fourth at 6-6.

Wasilla improved to 10-2 with a 66-40 win over the Moose, and Colony swept Kodiak.

Palmer capped its regular season with a pair of wins over Soldotna, notching wins of 57-47 and 45-40.

The NLC tourney starts March 5 at Wasilla High School.

Contact the Frontiersman at sports@frontiersman.com.