Warrior girls cruise to 3rd, on bubble for state tourney

PALMER — The Wasilla Warriors looked like a team headed for the state tournament during a dominant 69-27 victory over Soldotna in the Northern Lights Conference Championships third-place game at Colony High. But the Warriors left the locker room Saturday afternoon wondering if they’ve done enough to grab one of the state’s two at-large berths.

Kodiak and Colony claimed the conference’s two automatic bids with semifinal wins on Friday. Kodiak narrowly beat Wasilla, needing a fourth-quarter surge to rally to the win. Saturday, the Warriors showed no ill effects from the close loss to the top-ranked and undefeated Bears.

“The kids are playing their best ball right now. We’re peaking at the right time. I just hope it’s enough,” Wasilla head coach Jeannie Hebert-Truax said after the win.

The Alaska Schools Activities Association uses its Winning Percentage Index to rank 4A programs. Six seeds are handed out automatically, according to results of the four 4A conferences. The top team remaining teams, according to WPI, get the final two spots. Heading into play Saturday morning, unofficial WPI reports listed Wasilla at ninth in the standings.

“We’re pretty close,” Hebert-Truax said. “I think something else has got happen for us. We’re on the bubble.”

Soldotna was listed sixth on the unofficial WPI reports Saturday morning. But Wasilla was able to open up with the early lead.

“I knew by the time March came around we’d be playing our best,” Hebert-Truax said of the Warriors, who dropped both NLC regular season games against Soldotna. “Throughout the season we had to be good enough to get that at-large bid or surprise somebody in our region.”

After graduating five seniors from a 2013 squad that won the programs third straight 4A state title, the Warriors started the year with only three players who saw any varsity playing time. The remainder of the roster was made up mostly by freshman and a senior transfer from Nome, Shayla Johnson.

“Trying to mesh them all together, getting them all on the same page, picking up the intensity, learning those little fundamentals, I want them to know that make us a good team and work together as a group. We knew it was going to be a year-long process,” Hebert-Truax said.

Johnson sparked the Warriors early, scoring all 19 of Wasilla’s first-quarter points. Johnson hit four three-pointers in the first, five in the game, and scored a game-high 35 points.

“Shayla was unbelievable. She was just on fire,” Hebert-Truax said.

Wasilla led 19-14 after the first, and blew the game open with a 14-5 second-quarter run. Freshman Catherine Baham hit a three-pointer and scored seven of her team’s 14 in the second.

Johnson also collected six steals and six rebounds in the win. Cassidy Edwards finished with seven points and six rebounds.

Hebert-Truax said she was concerned about how her team would rebound from the eight-point loss to Kodiak in the semifinals.

“One of my worries as a coach was did we give out too much energy yesterday,” Hebert-Truax said. “We’ve got pretty resilient kids. We came out firing. It could be our last game of the season. If it is our last game, we’ve gone out the way we want to go.”

Soldotna, which appears to be headed to the state tourney with an at-large berth, was held to just 15.9 percent shooting in the game, including 11 percent in the second half. The Stars also turned the ball over 26 times.

Katelynn Kerkvliet led Soldotna with 11 points and seven rebounds. Kelci Benson added six points.

While the Stars will try to shake off back-to-back losses in the NLC tournament, the Warriors will sit and wait for ASAA to release its state tourney bracket.

“We’re peaking at the right time,” Hebert-Truax said. “We’re hoping to have good spirits tomorrow rather than disappointment.”

Soldotna boys shoot past Wasilla

PALMER — The Soldotna Stars knew their season was ending Saturday, and Soldotna capped the year guns blazing.

Soldotna knocked down 11 three-pointers en route to a 67-45 win over the Wasilla Warriors in the Northern Lights Conference Championships third-place game at Colony High School.

Austin Kruse drilled five three-pointers in the win and Colton Young added three shots from behind the arc. Three of Kruse’s threes came during Soldotna’s 16-8 second-quarter run.

Young led the Stars with a game-high 18 and Kruse added 15. As a team, Soldotna shot 55 percent from behind the arc.

Alex Baham led Wasilla with 14 points.

Wasilla girls 69,

Soldotna 27

NLC third-place game

Saturday, Colony High

Wasilla 19-14-15-21—69

Soldotna 14-5-3-5—27

Wasilla (69) — Kelly 1 3-8 5, LaBuda 0 2-2 2, Heath 0 2-2 2, Johnson 11 7-7 35, Baham 4 0-0 9, Toews 0 1-2 1, Hutchins 1 3-5 5, Dinkel 1 1-2 3, Edwards 2 2-4 7; Totals: 20 21-32 69.

Soldotna (27) — Benson 2 1-2 6, Litchfield 1 3-6 6, L. Wong 1 1-2 3, Kerkvliet 3 5-6 11, Miller 0 1-3 1; Totals: 7 11-19 27.

3-point field goals: Wasilla 8 (Johnson 6), Soldotna 2 (Benson, Litchfield 1); Total fouls: Wasilla 20, Soldotna 24.

Soldotna boys 67,

Wasilla 45

NLC third-place game

Saturday, Colony High

Soldotna 21-16-16-14—67

Wasilla 17-8-7-13—45

Soldotna (67) — Calloway 0 1-2 1, Young 6 3-3 18, Conradi 2 1-2 5, Spence 3 0-0 7, Spence 2 3-5 9, Kruse 5 0-0 15, Fowler 1 0-0 2, McElroy 3 1-1 7, Trammell 1 0-0 3; Totals: 23 10-14 67.

Wasilla (45) — Carney 2 4-4 9, Krueger 0 3-4 3, Baham 4 4-6 14, Garnett 3 0-7 7, Houck 2 0-0 5, Thatta 1 0-0 2, Burns 2 1-4 5; Totals: 14 12-27 45.

3-point field goals: Soldotna 11 (Kruse 5), Wasilla 5 (Baham 2); Total fouls: Soldotna 18, Wasilla 19.