Wasilla, Colony girls vie for title

The Wasilla Warriors and Colony Knights girls' basketball teams began state tournament play yesterday at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage.

The Wasilla girls' team came into the tournament as the second seed after winning the Region III championship Saturday at Skyview.

Wasilla defeated Colony 61-39 in the Region III championship game to post a perfect record against Region III teams. The Warriors' only loss this season was to the top-ranked East Anchorage Thunderbirds at East High School mid-way through the season.

"We're playing some of our best basketball right now," said Wasilla coach Jeannie Hebert. "The team is really gelling, we don't get flustered and we're running the inside and outside game well."

The mixture of outside shooting from Tonya James, Christy Hayes and Chandice Cronk with the dominant inside game of Brittney Kroon and Marsha Schirack have made the Warriors a tough team to defend this year.

Hebert believes that team rebounding has developed well this year.

"I've been impressed with our rebounding," said Hebert. "It starts our offense by helping us run the ball better. We talk about rebounding before games and at halftime of every game."

With a team of so many dominating players, Hebert believes that each player's tenacity and focus has been the strength of the Wasilla team.

"They know what they want to accomplish this season," said Hebert. "Brittney, Tonya and Christy have been focusing on a championship for three years."

Hebert is happy with the second seed in the tournament, which means that Wasilla will not face East until the championship game, if both make it through the tournament bracket without an upset.

The Warriors played Bartlett yesterday in the opening round of the tournament with results not available at press time. Wasilla will play either Juneau or Chugiak today, depending on the outcome of Thursday's games.

The Colony girls earned a trip into the state tournament with their second-place finish in Saturday's Region III tournament. The Knights are the fourth seed in the tournament.

Colony coach Don Witzel believes there are some things they could be doing better, but was impressed with the play of the team in the region tournament.

"Kelly Quinn willed us to win against Kenai and Sienna Locke played tough defense," he said of last Friday's game. "One of the keys for us was that our young kids came in and kept up the pace."

Witzel was impressed with how hard his team played in the Region III title game against Wasilla, stating that Wasilla's Cronk was the difference in the game.

"They play such a good inside and outside game that it is tough to defend," he said.

Witzel believes the strength of his team lies in its defense. The Knights employ a pressure defense that can give many teams problems getting the ball up the court and executing a half-court offense.

Witzel admits that the team's weakness this year has been shooting."You can play good defense, but if you can't score you won't get many opportunities," he said.

Colony drew a rematch with Kenai for its opening-round game yesterday. Colony will play either East or North Pole today.

"I like where we are positioned in the tournament," said Witzel. "It is a very competitive field this year."