Wasilla boys upset No. 1-seeded West

ANCHORAGE — The Wasilla Warriors shocked everyone, except themselves, Thursday with an upset win over the state’s top-ranked team in the opening round of the ASAA Alaska class 4A state basketball tournament.

“We had it in our minds that we were going to win,” Wasilla senior Tillerman Kroon said after the eighth-seeded Warriors held on for a 67-64 win over the West Anchorage Eagles. It West’s second loss to an Alaska opponent all season, and Wasilla became the first eighth seed to post a first-round win in the current era of the ASAA state tourney.

Wasilla used patience on the offensive end and strong rebounding on defense to keep the high-scoring Eagles in check throughout the game, which featured 17 lead changes.

“We rebounded terrific,” Wasilla coach Ryan Engebretsen said of his team, which out-rebounded the Eagles 46-37 in the game. “They wanted it as a team.”

The victory set up a showdown tonight at 8:45 p.m. with fellow Northern Lights Conference foe Soldotna, which the Warriors beat in the NLC championship game two weeks ago in Kodiak.

Thursday’s game started out up-tempo, with the Eagles scoring quickly on the opening possession. West looked to use its transition game to get easy chances off early Warrior turnovers, but Wasilla’s hustle negated a trio of West fast-break attempts in the opening minutes as the Warriors opened up the game with a 9-7 lead after four minutes of play on a nifty one-handed floater by Kroon.

West quickly re-took the lead on a three-pointer from the top of the key, but Wasilla senior Adrese LaVern — who began his high school career at West — answered with an old-fashioned three-point play inside to put the Warriors up 12-10.

West then went on a 6-0 run, but the Warriors again had an answer, getting a three-point play from Kroon to go up 17-16. The back-and-forth play continued, as West guard Travis Moon nailed a fade-away jumper at the buzzer to put the Eagles in front 18-17 after an entertaining first eight minutes of basketball.

The teams traded leads 10 times in the second quarter, with neither team able to grab more than a three-point lead until West got back-to-back baskets from Ethan Zinck and Devon Bookert in the final minute to take a 35-30 lead into the locker room.

Wasilla got scoring from seven different players in the first half. The Warriors were led by junior Cody Pfeifer, who had eight points and went 6-for-6 from the foul line. Wasilla did much of its damage in the first half from the charity stripe, knocking down 13 of 14 tries. LaVern and Kroon each had seven points at the half, while Russell led all scorers with 12 points to go along with seven boards.

Pfeifer was an animal at the free throw line, hitting 10 of 12 from the stripe en route to a team-high 18 points in the game.

It wasn’t just Pfeifer carrying the scoring load for the Warriors. Four Wasilla players ended the game in double figures, including 11 each from LaVern and John Knowles and 10 from Kroon. Feeney finished with 17 points to lead West, while Russell added 15 and Bookert had 10.

Despite being a big underdog, Engebretsen said the Warriors had no intention of going for a moral victory Thursday.

“We knew we could beat these guys, and we worked our tails off to do it,” he said.

West started out the third quarter strong, getting a pair of Russell buckets to push the lead to 39-32.

Knowles started a Wasilla rally midway through the quarter with a pair of tough inside baskets to keep the Warriors within striking distance. Wasilla then tied the game again when Kroon scored in transition to knot things at 39.

The teams were tied three times in the next four minutes, with Wasilla grabbing its first lead of the second half on a left-handed runner by Pfeifer with 30 seconds left in the quarter. The lead was short-lived, however, as Zinck nailed a three from the corner just seconds before the buzzer to leave the state’s top-ranked team clinging to a 50-48 lead with eight minutes left to play in the game.

After Wasilla tied the game at 50-50, Feeney struck from deep, nailing a trey from the corner to put the Eagles up three with 6:17 left in the contest.

LaVern showed Wasilla would not go quietly, following Feeney’s three with one of his own to again knot the game at 53 each. Knowles followed that shot with a baby hook in the lane to put the Warriors up 55-53 with five minutes left to play. Pfeifer and Orr quickly followed Knowles’ bucket by combining for four free throws to give Wasilla its biggest lead of the game at 59-53 with less than three minutes left to go.

West struggled from the field in the final frame, missing a number of open jump shots late in the contest. But as bad as the Eagles were from the field, the Warriors were equally good at grabbing rebounds and limiting the Eagles’ second-chance opportunities.

Bookert finally hit a field goal to cut the lead to 59-55, and the Eagles pulled to three on a Feeney free throw at the 1:59 mark.

But each time the Eagles struck, the Warriors had a counter-punch. Knowles had a big bucket with 1:35 left, then set up Orr for a lay-up of his own that kept the Warriors clinging to the lead as the clock continued to wind toward zero.

West benefited from a controversial foul call on Knowles — his fifth — with just more than one minute to play. Feeney missed both ensuing free throws, but the Eagles got the offensive board and pulled to within two on a runner by Justin Kauffman with 54 seconds left in regulation.

After one Kroon foul shot, the Eagles tried to set up a play in the corner. But the Eagles lost the ball out of bounds, and after Pfeifer scored the Warriors were left with a 66-61 lead with less than 20 seconds to play.

Feeney gave the Eagles hope with a deep trey with 6.1 left in the game to cut the lead to two, allowing West coach Chuck White to call timeout. But Wasilla was able to get the ball inbounds to Pfeifer, who was immediately sent to the line with a chance to ice things. He hit one of two, and when Kauffman’s desperation heave at the buzzer fell short, the Warriors punched their ticket into the second round.

Though the Warriors scored the opening day’s biggest upset, Kroon said the 2007 state champions have their eyes on a much bigger prize.

“We’re here to win.”

Wasilla 67, West Anchorage 64

ASAA 4A quarterfinals

Thursday, Sullivan Arena

Wasilla 17-13-18-19—67

West 18-17-15-14—64

Wasilla (67) — Schierman 0 2-2 2, Kroon 4 2-3 10, Kuiper 2 0-0 5, LaVern 3 4-5 11, Orr 1 3-4 7, Pfeifer 4 10-12 18, Mock 1 0-0 2, Knowles 5 1 3 11, Green 0 1-2 1; Totals: 21 23-31 67. West (64) — Bookert 4 2-2 10, Russell Jr. 6 3-4 15, Kauffman 2 2-3 6, Moon 1 0-0 2, Zinck 3 0-0 8, Wyche 1 1-1 3, Rus 1 0-0 3, Feeney Jr. 6 3-7 17; Totals: 24 11-17 64.

Three-point field goals: Wasilla 2 (Kuiper, LaVern 1), West 5 (Zinck, Feeney 2); Rebounds: Wasilla 46 (LaVern 9), West 37 (Russell 13).