Warriors' run halted by East

Gene Jansen/Frontiersman sports editor

ANCHORAGE — The Wasilla Warriors returned to the Lynx gym to defend their Alaska Prep Shootout hoops title over the weekend.

After beating the Juneau Crimson Bears twice and the Bartlett Golden Bears earlier in the week, the Warriors nipped Dimond in front of its home crowd, 46-44, in the tournament semifinals. The game was a rematch of last year's title game.

"I'm not sure I've been through a more stressful five games in my life," Warrior coach Chuck Martin said of Wasilla's 4-1 week. "We have had an unbelievable week."

To beat Bartlett, Juneau and Dimond in the same week before taking on top-ranked East High Thunder Birds is quite an accomplishment for a "glorified JV team," Martin said.

Wasilla sports only one returning starter from last year's varsity team, but Martin expects great accomplishments from his relatively inexperienced team this year.

"You guys have a shot to do something special," he told his team after the 55-41 loss in the championship game against the T-Birds. "You aren't outclassed by anybody in the state. You have a chance to win it all."

After defeating Juneau in back-to-back games Wednesday and Thursday, Wasilla advanced to the tournament semifinals against Dimond, a team which had dispatched Skyview 78-44 in the opening round match-up.

The Warriors got down early to the second-ranked Lynx team, but battled back to take a two-point half-time lead. Wasilla went up by as much as 13 points in the fourth quarter, but Dimond turned up the juice and tied the game on a three-point play with just 28 seconds remaining in the game.

When Warrior guard Scott Faeo was fouled on one of his patented drives down the paint just before the buzzer, he followed up by drilling two free throws, bouncing Dimond out of its own gym by two points and advancing Wasilla to the title game against East.

The T-Birds, who did not play in last year's prep shootout, took a 17-11 lead on two three-point goals by Yannick Evina-Ze and Ricky Brown in the first quarter of the prep shootout championship contest.

The Warriors 6-foot 10-inch center Ray Schafer could not find help under the net in the first half of play as the T-Birds controlled the glass at both ends of the court. East outrebounded Wasilla 38-18 in the game, getting seven rebounds each from C. J. Macon and Stevie Moss. Schafer had six rebounds and 15 points in the game for the Warriors.

After falling behind 37-23 in the third quarter, Schafer netted a hook shot to bring the score to 37-25. Then Faeo converted two free-throw attempts to close within 10 points. On the ensuing T-Bird possession, James Watts stole the ball from tournament MVP Jevon Miller and fed Faeo for an easy layup. Wasilla closed out the third quarter with six straight points, pulling to within 37-29. Faeo contributed eight points and two assists in the game.

When Collins opened the final frame with a three-point goal to close the gap to five points, it looked as though Wasilla was on its way to a comeback. But a couple of missed three-point attempts by Collins on the next two possessions and an unforgiving East High fast break put the T-Birds up 46-36 with just three minutes to play. Collins drained nine points for the Warriors, all on three-point goals.

A turnover and a foul by Travis Webb down the stretch — combined with three fouls by Faeo who was glued to East ball-handlers, looking for mistakes — allowed East to extend its lead to 51-36. East eventually won, 55-41.

"We knew they're very good offensively," Martin said. "I thought we did a good job of executing against their zone [defense]."

The Warriors look forward to another match-up against East.

"We've got to come out more prepared," Schafer said after the game. "We were pretty timid tonight."

Both Schafer and Faeo were selected to the Alaska Prep Shootout all-tournament team.

EAST (55) — S. Moss 4 1-1 9; Miller 1 5-8 7; Laws 2 0-1 5; Brown 4 3-4 12; Macon 3 1-1 8; Evina-Ze 4 2-2 10; Hamlett 2 0-0 4; A. Moss 0 0-0 0. Totals — 20 12-17 55.

WASILLA (41) — Bean 1 0-0 2; Scheirman 0 0-0 0; McCaul 0 0-0 0; Pettijohn 0 0-0 0; Watts 1 1-2 3; Webb 1 2-2 4; Collins 3 0-0 9; Heibel 0 0-0 0; Schafer 7 1-3 15; Tebow 0 0-0 0. Totals — 16 6-11 41.

Total fouls — East 10, Wasilla 13. Fouled out — Faeo. Three-point goals — Laws, Brown, Macon, Collins 3.

East 17 9 11 18 — 55

Wasilla 11 3 15 12 — 41