Warrior boys top Colony

By JEREMIAH BARTZ-Sports editor

PALMER -- Whatever Colony did on Tuesday, Wasilla stayed a few steps ahead.

Wasilla maintained a 10-point lead for most of the second half and notched a 58-46 win over the Knights at Colony High School.

Each time Colony struck, Wasilla would strike back again to pad the cushion between the two teams.

After Wasilla built a 14-9 lead in the first quarter, Justin Gray opened the second for Colony with a jumper to cut the lead to three, but Wasilla's Luke Schafer immediately followed with the hoop and drew the foul.

Midway through the third Justin Schwartzbauer drove through the key and laid it in to cut the Warrior lead to nine and Wasilla's Jesse Bean followed with a trey to push the lead to 12. Two minutes later Gray notched an offensive rebound and putback to cut the lead to 10, and Wasilla's Ben Nehr delivered a three-pointer from the top of the key.

Nehr, who scored a game-high 20 points, shattered the comeback hopes of the Knights again in the fourth. Rhett Magner hit a leaning jumper and Tim Egger followed with a pair of free throws for Colony to cut the Wasilla lead to 11 midway through the third, but Nehr immediately followed with a three-pointer to extend the Warrior lead to 14.

"Those are big momentum killers," Wasilla head coach Jason Marvel said.

Many of Wasilla's key buckets came on the outside shot, with Bean and Nehr each hitting pivotal three-pointers, but it was Wasilla's inside game led by Schafer and Matt Crane that gave the Warrior guards opportunities to act in the clutch.

"Right now that is our whole philosophy on the offensive end," Marvel said. "Inside-out."

Marvel credited his post players with supplying the pressure inside to establish their offensive gameplan.

Schwartzbauer tried to spark things for the Knights, scoring eight of his team's 10 points in the third quarter and 13 of his team-high 15 points in the second half.

The junior forward sat out most of the second quarter, due to foul trouble, but hit five shots as the Knights tried to come back in the final two frames.