Wasilla girls headed back to state title game

ANCHORAGE — The Wasilla Warriors have spent basically the entire season winning.

There’s only one blemish on Wasilla’s record this year, a loss to Dimond in the Dimond Lady Lynx Shootout in February. But even while winning, the defending state champions still felt they were not living up to their potential.

Well, that has changed, and the Warriors have steamrolled into their third straight state title game.

Wasilla scored a 47-32 win over rival Colony during the ASAA/First National Bank 4A State Championships semifinals Friday at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage. It was Wasilla’s fifth straight win by 15 points or more and earned the Warriors their sixth trip to the 4A championship since 2002. The victory also leaves the Warriors within reach of their third title since 2007.

After the win over Colony, Wasilla junior Alysha Devine said the Warriors realized late in the year, in order to realize their goals, they needed to step up their game.

“Finally, one day we got together as a team and said we need to start playing the way we should,” Devine said.

The result was three dominant wins during the Northern Lights Conference Championships, a stretch capped by an impressive 55-30 win over Soldotna in the NLC title game.

That caliber of play continued in the state tourney, with a 50-31 first-round win over Palmer.

All of those victories featured early runs, and Friday the Warriors continued to storm.

Wasilla shot 50 percent from the floor during the first two quarters, forced a dozen Colony turnovers and jumped to a 35-11 halftime lead.

“We’ve just really come together,” Devine said.

Junior point guard Alexis Imoe sparked Wasilla with 11 of her game-high 15 in the first half. Imoe hit a pair of threes in the win and dished out six assists.

“She’s huge for our team,” Devine said of Imoe.

Devine added 11 points, four rebounds and three steals. Senior Alyssa Hutchins chipped in eight points and three steals.

Colony tried to rally in the third, putting together a 16-point quarter. Junior Mary Klapperich hit both of her three-pointers late in the quarter. Sophomore Izzy Tweed followed the Klapperich threes with a layup to cut Wasilla’s lead to 11, but that’s as close as the Knights could get in the second half.

Colony senior Saige Stefanski led the Knights with 10 points and five rebounds in the loss.

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

Wasilla 47, Colony 32

4A state semifinals

Friday, Anchorage

Colony 6-5-16-5—32

Wasilla 19-16-10-2—47

Colony (32) — Klapperich 2 0-2 6, Farris 2 2-4 6, Tweed 1 0-0 2, Nelson 1 0-0 2, Brumbaugh 1 0-0 2, Stefanski 5 0-0 10, Solano 0 4-6 4; Totals: 12 6-13 32.

Wasilla (47) — Hutchins 3 3-4 9, Imoe 6 1-2 15, Brumbaugh 1 0-0 2, Devine 4 3-4 11, Dinkel 2 4-4 8, Burke 1 0-1 2; Totals: 17 11-15 47.

Three-point field goals: Colony 2 (Klapperich 2), Wasilla 2 (Imoe 2); Total fouls: Colony 16, Wasilla 15.