Wasilla girls survive semifinal scare, advance to state title game

ANCHORAGE — Survive and advance.

The Wasilla Warriors survived upset-minded East Anchorage’s bid to knock off the defending state champion Warriors. And Wasilla advanced to its second straight 4A girls state title game with a 46-38 win over the Thunderbirds during the semifinal round of the ASAA/First National Bank State Basketball Championships Friday evening at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage.

“That’s what it’s all about,” Wasilla head coach Jeannie Hebert-Truax said after the win. “We knew the semifinal game would be tough no matter who we are facing.”

Wasilla didn’t lead in the second half until the 3:51 mark of the fourth quarter, but capped the game on a 9-1 run that helped set up a rematch with Dimond in the 4A girls title game, scheduled for Saturday at 5:45 p.m. in Anchorage.

Before taking the lead midway through the final frame, the Warriors had to weather three-and-a-half quarters worth of frustration courtesy of the T-Birds.

“They’re very athletic,” Hebert-Truax said. “From the tall, skinny one to the short one, to the quick guards. They’re long and lanky. We don’t play against that very often.”

East held the Warriors to 18 points and 29 percent shooting in the first half, and used a 15-10 second-quarter run to take a 24-18 lead into the break.

But Wasilla made its move in the fourth quarter.

Senior Catherine Baham dumped in a short hook with 4:04 left in the game to tie the score at 37. Moments later, junior Azlynn Brandenburg hit a pair of free throws to give Wasilla its first lead of the second half, a 39-37 advantage. Hebert-Truax said she saw a shift when her team took the lead.

“We finally hit some buckets. As soon as we went ahead, the kids kind of calmed down a little bit and got it going,” Hebert-Truax said. “They frustrated East, and that was the game right there.”

Senior Kaylyn Kelly followed the Baham bucket with a steal at midcourt, and that led a foul that setup the Brandenburg free throws. On East’s ensuing possession, the Warriors forced the T-Birds to throw it away, and senior McKenna Dinkel cut to the basket to give Wasilla the 41-37 advantage with just more than three minutes left in the game.

Olivia Davies led the Warriors with 14 points in the win. The sophomore was 7 of 12 from the free throw line. Dinkel was 5 of 6 from the line, and added 11 points. Brandenburg chipped in nine.

Top-seeded Wasilla moved into the semifinals with a victory over eighth-seeded Ketchikan on Thursday. East is the No. 5 seed in the tourney, and beat fourth-seeded Chugiak to advance to the semifinals.

Second-seeded Dimond narrowly escaped with a win over third-seeded Colony in the other semifinal.

The Lynx hit four free throws in the final 50 seconds to secure a 61-58 semifinal win over the Knights. Dimond had to overcome a number of big Colony buckets to advance to the state title game for the second straight year.

Colony junior Ella Smith knocked down a three-pointer with 9.5 seconds left in regulation to cut Dimond’s lead to a point, but Dimond’s Jahnna Hajdukovich hit a pair of free throws in the final seconds to push her team’s lead back to three, and Colony was unable to get one final clean look from beyond the arc.

Colony hit 10 three-pointers in the loss, including a trey by sophomore Kali Bull that cut Dimond’s advantage to 47-46 with 1:37 left in the third. Bull gave her team the lead, completing a three-point play, with 1:06 left in the third. Bull made a play at the basket, was fouled and hit the free throw to give Colony the 49-47 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.

Amanda Smith knocked down four of Colony’s 10 threes, and scored a team-high 16 for the Knights. Bull added 11 and Paige Clary chipped in eight.

Colony will meet East in the 4A girls third-place game, Saturday at 8:30 a.m. in Anchorage.

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

Wasilla 46, East Anchorage 38

4A girls semifinals

Friday, Anchorage

East 9-15-8-6—38

Wasilla 8-10-12-16—46

East (38) — Villareal 0 1-2 1, Thompson 1 0-0 3, Brown 1 1-2 3, Page 4 1-2 9, Robinson 6 2-3 14, Kidder 1 0-0 2, Voliva 1 1-2 3, Hines 1 1-3 3; Totals: 15 7-14 38.

Wasilla (46) — Davies 3 7-12 14, Baham 3 0-0 7, Kelly 0 1-6 1, Brandenburg 2 5-8 9, Dinkel 3 5-6 11, 2 0-2 4; Totals: 13 18-34 46.

3-point field goals: East 1 (Thompson 1), Wasilla 2 (Davies, Baham 1); Total fouls: East 23, Wasilla 15.

Dimond 61, Colony 58

4A girls semifinals

Friday, Anchorage

Colony 17-17-15-9—58

Dimond 14-23-10-14—61

Colony (58) — Duguid 1 2-2 5, Watson 0 1-2 1, A. Smith 5 2-2 16, Clary 4 0-1 8, Bull 4 1-1 11, Steiner 2 0-0 5, Novelli 0 2-2 2, Carlton 1 0-0 3, E. Smith 3 0-0 7; Totals: 20 8-10 58.

Dimond (61) — Osborne 1 0-0 2, Bialo 2 0-0 6, Carle 3 1-4 7, Johansen 1 0-0 3, Hajdukovich 5 7-7 19, Pili 6 12-18 24; Totals: 18 20-27 61.

3-point field goals: Colony 10 (A. Smith 4), Dimond 4 (Hajdukovich, Bialo 2); Total fouls: Colony 19, Dimond 12.