Warrior girls need double overtime to win

March 22, 2005

JEREMIAH BARTZ/Frontiersman Sports Editor

SOLDOTNA - The Wasilla Warriors spent the last five seasons burning through Region III competition, but in order to claim its fifth straight conference title, Wasilla had to survive a cold spell.

The Warriors erased an early deficit and needed a pair of overtime periods to edge the Homer Mariners 64-60 in the championship game of the Northern Lights Conference tournament at Soldotna on Saturday.

"The first time (we played them) we only beat them by like 10 or 12 points, so I knew they would be a tough team," Wasilla head coach Jeannie Hebert-Truax said.

Playing in their first conference championship game in more than a decade, the hot-shooting Mariners jumped out to a 20-8 first quarter lead. Paced by freshman Allison Harazdorsky's 12 first-half points, Homer shot 70 percent in the first half.

"They were hot offensively and our (percentage) was really bad," Hebert-Truax said.

Hebert-Truax said during the first half she heard a fan behind the Warrior bench say, "Man they can't buy a bucket."

"We had a hard time putting the ball in the basket, even in the third period," Hebert-Truax said. "We were getting the opportunities, just missing."

Despite having three of their top players foul out late in the contest, the Warriors used defensive pressure and found the bottom of the basket at key points late in the contest to seal the come-from-behind win. Hebert-Traux said Wasilla played arguably its best defense of the year in the second half of the win.

Senior Megan Stearman scored a game-high 17 points in the game, but was lost in the first overtime with five fouls. Fellow captain Jamie Brown fouled out near the end of regulation. Ayla Brown also fouled out. With the loss of Jamie and Ayla Brown, Hebert said Hillarie Putnam came up big for the Warriors.

Putnam scored 16 points and hit 9-of-14 free throws, filled in for Jamie Brown at point guard and had the duty of defending Homer's top offensive weapon - Bailey Lowrey.

Lowrey was held without a field goal in the second half and overtime periods.

"(Hillarie) sucked it up and did a great job," Hebert-Truax said.

With the win, Wasilla advanced to the ASAA 4A state tournament and will enter as the tournament's second seed. The Warriors face Cook Inlet Conference runner-up Dimond in the first round on March 31 at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage.

Also advancing to the tourney is Colony. The Knights earned their 12th straight trip to state with a 43-37 win over Palmer in the third-place game.

Kelsy Joynt scored a game-high 12 points and the Knights used a 12-6 run in the fourth quarter to seal the win.

The Knights advanced to the consolation finals with a slim 45-43 win over Kenai, while Palmer defeated Skyview 45-37 in the consolation semifinals.