Wasilla, Colony boys fall short of tournament glory

ANCHORAGE -- Coming into the boys' state basketball tournament held at the Sullivan Arena, both Colony and Wasilla had hopes of reaching the final game and a chance at the 4A state championship.

The chance for a championship was squashed by the hand of second-seeded Juneau-Douglas, as the Crimson Bears eliminated Colony and then Wasilla from championship contention on consecutive days.

"From a win-loss perspective, we are disappointed in the outcome," said Wasilla coach Chuck Martin. "We won the region championship this year, but we all

wanted more."

Fresh off its Region III championship last week, Wasilla took double overtime to defeat Lathrop 71-62 in the opening round Thursday, then lost an overtime thriller 59-56 against Juneau Friday to knock the Warriors to the third-place game.

Devastated from the Juneau loss and exhausted from playing back-to-back overtime games, the Warriors came out flat against Dimond in the third-place game Saturday and suffered a 52-37 loss, forcing Wasilla to settle for fifth place.

"We had expended so much energy in the previous games were not emotionally able to get up for Dimond," Martin said. "We were disappointed at having to play the third-place game and Dimond deserved to win."

The Warriors came into the tournament as the third seed and looked poised to make a run at the championship.

Lathrop's upset attempt in Thursday's opening round of the tournament demonstrated the parity in the boys' tournament this year. Top-seeded and eventual champion Bartlett narrowly averted an upset against eighth-seeded Kenai in the opening round, but escaped with a 71-70 win.

The third meeting of the season between Wasilla and Juneau decided which team advanced to the championship game against Bartlett. Both teams pulled out all the stops in a barn burner that let neither team gain the advantage until the final buzzer sounded in overtime to give Juneau the win and send Wasilla to the third-place game.

"I have never had a group of kids that I've enjoyed more," Martin said. "I thought we were the best team there."

Wasilla will lose valuable senior leadership to graduation, but is optimistic about next year.

"We have some good young kids coming up next year," Martin said. "We expect to be good and in contention next year."

Next year will actually start next month for Wasilla and Martin with spring leagues and basketball camps that will go on through the summer.

The Wasilla team was honored as the academic all-tournament team with a 3.51 grade-point average.

Ray Schafer was named to the all-tournament team.

Colony had the unenviable task of facing Juneau to open its tournament play Thursday, falling to the Crimson Bears 51-38.

The Knights were defeated 56-40 at the hands of Lathrop Friday to end Colony's basketball season.

The Knights will return four starters to next year's squad.

Valdez held off Craig 59-57 to take the 3A boys' championship.

Thursday's boys' results

WASILLA 71, LATHROP 62, 2OT

LATHROP (62) -- Bourne 6 7-10 19, Fuller 0 0-0 0, Shaver 2 0-0 5, Kalberg 4 1-2 11, Titus 0 1-2 1, Reeves 2 0-0 4, Brown 1 0-0 2, Dominique 0 0-0 0, Robinson 3 1-2 8, Snowden 4 4-4 12. Totals 22 14-21 62.

WASILLA (71) -- Scheirman 1 0-0 3, McCaul 0 0-0 0, Faeo 2 5-7 10, Webb 1 1-2 3, Fitt-Chappell 7 8-8 27, Collins 1 0-0 3, L. Schafer 1 0-0 2, Heibel 2 1-1 5, R. Schafer 5 8-13 18. Totals 20 23-31 71.

Total fouls -- Lathrop 24, Wasilla 16. Fouled out -- Kalberg, Snowden. Three-point goals -- Kalberg 2, Shaver, Robinson, Fitt-Chappell 5, Collins, Faeo, Scheirman.

Lathrop 12 15 16 8 4 7 -- 62

Wasilla 13 12 8 18 4 16 -- 71

JUNEAU-DOUGLAS 51, COLONY 38

JUNEAU-DOUGLAS (51) -- Cumlat 2 1-2 5, Ayers 2 0-2 4, Monagle 3 1-3 7, Henderson 1 0-0 3, Hamey 2 3-4 9, Kitka 0 2-2 2, Lane 4 2-3 12, Wild 2 5-6 9, Miller 0 0-0 0, Zimmer 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 14-22 51.

COLONY (38) -- Swank 1 0-0 2, Reza 1 1-2 3, Manasco 0 0-0 0, Hotchkiss 4 0-0 10, Coffman 0 2-2 2, Rose 0 0-0 0, Spencer 3 0-1 7, Christensen 2 0-1 4, Hyslip 5 0-0 10. Totals 16 3-6 38.

Total fouls -- Juneau-Douglas 12, Colony 16. Fouled out -- None. Three-point goals -- Hamey 2, Lane 2, Henderson, Hotchkiss 2, Spencer.

Juneau-Douglas 15 6 11 19 -- 70

Colony 9 10 14 5 -- 38

Friday's boys results

LATHROP 56, COLONY 40

COLONY (40) -- Swank 2 1-1 5, Reza 1 6-10 8, Manasco 0 0-0 0, Hotchkiss 2 0-0 6, Hooser 0 0-0 0, S. Erickson 0 2-2 2, Coffman 0 0-0 0, Rose 1 0-0 3, Spencer 5 0-0 11, Christensen 1 0-0 2, Hyslip 1 1-2 3, McBride 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 10-15 40.

LATHROP (56) -- Graziadei 0 0-0 0, Bourne 5 1-3 12, Fuller 0 0-1 0, Shaver 3 3-3 10, Kalberg 1 0-0 3, Titus 0 1-2 1, Reeves 2 1-2 5, Brown 3 1-2 7, Dominique 0 0-0 0, Robinson 2 0-0 5, Broker 1 0-0 2, Snowden 3 5-6 11. Totals 20 12-19 56.

Total fouls -- Colony 17, Lathrop 15. Fouled out -- None. Three-point goals -- Hotchkiss 2, Rose, Spencer, Bourne, Robinson, Shaver, Kalberg.

JUNEAU 59, WASILLA 56 (OT)

JUNEAU-DOUGLAS (59) -- Cumlat 4 1-2 11, Ayers 1 0-2 2, Monagal 3 1-2 7, Henderson 0 0-0 0, Hamey 4 2-2 14, Kitka 0 0-0 0, Lane 3 1-3 10, Wild 4 1-4 9, Miller 2 2-2 6. Totals 21 8-17 59.

WASILLA (56) -- Scheirman 1 1-2 4, McCaul 3 0-0 9, Faeo 0 4-4 4, Webb 3 2-4 8, Fitt-Chappell 5 1-2 12, Collins 0 0-0 0, L. Schafer 0 0-0 0, Heibel 0 0-0 0, R. Schafer 6 7-8 19. Totals 18 15-20 56.

Totals fouls -- Juneau-Douglas 16, Wasilla 22. Fouled out -- Collins. Three-point goals -- Cumlat 2, Hamey 4, Lane 3, Scheirman, McCaul 3, Fitt-Chappell.

Saturday's boys' third-place game

DIMOND 52, WASILLA 37

WASILLA (37) -- Scheirman 0 0-0 0, McCaul 0 0-0 0, Roth 2 0-0 6, Faeo 0 0-0 0, Webb 2 0-2 4, Fitt-Chappell 3 2-2 9, Collins 0 0-0 0, Heibel 1 0-0 2, R. Schafer 6 4-6 16. Totals 14 6-10 37.

DIMOND (52) -- A. Murphy 2 0-0 4, Chirhart 10 5-6 31, Joseph 3 0-0 6, Stovall 0 0-1 0, S. Murphy 1 0-0 3, Flakes 0 0-0 0, Simmons 1 0-0 3, Jemin 1 0-0 2, Hodges 1 1-1 3, Clapper 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 6-8 52.

Total fouls -- Wasilla 10, Dimond 19. Fouled out -- Hodges. Three-point goals -- Roth 2, Fitt-Chappell, Chirhart 6, S. Murphy, Simmons.