Valley teams ready for tourney

WASILLA — Heading into the final weekend of play, the Wasilla Warriors could have finished anywhere from first to third in the Northern Lights Conference boys standings. After a splitting a two-game series with Kodiak, the Warriors ended with the No. 3 seed. But the Warriors weren’t fixated on exactly where they’d land on the bracket.

“We just want to be playing our best basketball come regions,” Wasilla head coach Ryan Engebretsen said recently. “It doesn’t matter who we play. We’re going to have to beat everybody in order to reach (our) goal.”

With its third seed, Wasilla (7-3) opens NLC tournament play against sixth-seeded Kenai (0-10) Thursday at 4:45 p.m. at Colony High School. The winner of that game will move on to face second-seeded Kodiak (7-3) Friday at 3:15 p.m. at CHS.

“We want to be playing our best basketball in March, and right now we’re playing pretty decent basketball,” Engebretsen said. “We can’t focus on Kodiak in the semis until we get past Kenai, who played us tough at their place. Our focus (this) week will be one game at a time.”

Wasilla edged Kenai in overtime last month.

Colony locked up the No. 1 seed with Wasilla’s win over Kodiak last Saturday. After helping lead his team to a win over Palmer on Friday, Colony senior Damien Fulp said the Knights are also focused on how they’re playing, rather than who they are playing.

“We’re not scared of any team in this conference,” Fulp said. “Going into regions, we know we can beat anyone. We just want to play.”

Colony (8-2) shares the same side of the bracket as fourth-seeded Soldotna and fifth-seeded Palmer. The Stars (5-5) and Moose (3-7) play Thursday at 8:15 p.m. in the quarterfinals at CHS. The winner of that game plays Colony in the semifinals, Friday at 6:45 p.m.

The girls bracket features an all-Valley quarterfinal. Fourth-seeded Wasilla (4-6) meets fifth-seeded Palmer (3-7) Thursday at 3 p.m. at CHS. The winner will face top-seed Kodiak (10-0) Friday at 1:30 p.m. in the semifinals.

Third-seeded Colony (6-4) faces sixth-seeded Kenai (0-10) in the quarterfinals. The Colony/Kenai winner plays second-seeded Soldotna (7-3) in the semifinals Friday at 5 p.m.

The girls championship game is slated for Saturday at 3:30 p.m. and the boys title game will follow Saturday at 5:15 p.m.

The top two teams from the boys and girls brackets all earn automatic bids to the 4A state tournament.

Southcentral tournament

The Houston boys and girls each drew Homer in the first round of the Southcentral Conference Championships.

Houston tips off the tournament against Homer Thursday at 8 a.m. at Cordova High School. The Houston boys follow against the Mariners Thursday at 9:30 a.m.

The Houston boys will play either Anchorage Christian or Nikiski during the second day of the tourney. The Houston girls will face either Anchorage Christian or Skyview.