Wasilla boys, girls own top seed in 4A state tournaments

WASILLA — Aside from their chief rivals, Colony and Palmer, there is not a squad the Wasilla boys are more familiar with than Kodiak. And the Warriors will face the Bears once again.

Wasilla, the No. 1 seed in the 4A boys bracket, will play eighth-seeded Kodiak in the first round of the ASAA/First National Bank 4A State Basketball Championships Thursday at 12:30 p.m. at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage.

“We’ll get after it and see what happens,” Wasilla head coach Ryan Engebretsen said.

It’s the fourth meeting of the season for the Northern Lights Conference rivals and a rematch of the 2017 NLC title game won by the Warriors 61-49. Wasilla is 3-0 against the Bears this season. The first three games were hosted by Kodiak.

Wasilla also owns the top seed in the girls’ bracket. The top-ranked Warriors will face eighth-seeded Ketchikan Thursday at 9:30 a.m. at the Alaska Airlines Center. Wasilla, the defending state champion, is one of a pair of Valley squads in the field. Colony rose to the third seed, and will play sixth-seeded Lathrop Thursday at 8 a.m. in the first round.

Wasilla beat Colony in the NLC title game last week and earned the conference’s two automatic berths.

Wasilla and Ketchikan are on the top side of the girls’ bracket with fourth-seeded Chugiak and fifth-seeded East Anchorage, who play Thursday at 5 p.m. Dimond, the Cook Inlet Conference champion, is the No. 2 seed and plays seventh-seeded Juneau-Douglas Thursday at 3:30 p.m. The Wasilla-Ketchikan winner faces the East-Chugiak winner March 24 at 5:15 p.m. in the semifinals. The Colony-Lathrop winner plays the Dimond-Juneau winner March 24 at 3:45 p.m. in the other semifinal. The 4A girls’ title game is scheduled for March 25 at 5:45 p.m.

On the boys’ bracket, Wasilla and Kodiak share the top side with fourth-seeded Ketchikan and fifth-seeded Bartlett, who meet Thursday at 11 a.m. The bottom half features third-seeded East Anchorage meeting sixth-seeded Juneau-Douglas Thursday at 6:30 p.m., and second-seeded Dimond meeting seventh-seeded West Valley Thursday at 8 p.m.

The Wasilla-Kodiak winner plays the Bartlett-Ketchikan winner in the semifinals March 24 at 7 p.m. The East-Juneau and Dimond-West Valley winner plays in the other semi March 24 at 8:30 p.m. The 4A boys’ final is scheduled for March 25 at 7:45 p.m.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.