Wasilla girls win 2nd straight state title

ANCHORAGE — The last time the Wasilla Warriors saw Alissa Pili and the Dimond Lynx, Dimond’s monster sophomore put together a 37-point, 18-rebound effort during a win at Wasilla High School in February.

When the rivals met again on Saturday, the Warriors weren’t ready to allow Pili a repeat performance. Wasilla held Alaska’s 4A Player of the Year to a mere 13 points as the Warriors earned their second straight 4A state title with a 51-34 victory over the Lynx Saturday evening at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage.

“We knew it was all really about stopping Pili,” Wasilla head coach Jeannie Hebert-Truax said after the win. “We got her frustrated, got her into foul trouble. We did what we talked about doing to her.”

The Warriors held the Dimond standout to 3 of 9 shooting in the game. Seven of Pili’s 13 points came from the free throw line.

“We talked about how to stop her a ton,” Wasilla senior McKenna Dinkel said. “That’s what we worked on a lot. She’s a really good player. Hebert’s a really good coach. She designed plays to tire her out.”

Wasilla’s defense in general was stellar. The Warriors held the Cook Inlet Conference champs to its lowest scoring total of the year, by far. Dimond’s previous low was 53 against Chugiak, in its lone loss of the season. Dimond shot just 11 of 39 from the field, and 2 of 15 from beyond the arc. Dimond’s other all-state standout, Jahnna Hajdukovich was held to 11 points, eight of which came in the first nine minutes of the game. The Lynx scored only two in the second and six in the fourth quarter.

Dimond threatened early building a 16-11 first quarter lead. Early in the second, Hajdukovich got a bucket to push Dimond’s lead to 18-11. But those were Dimond’s final points of the first half. Wasilla closed the second quarter on a 13-0 run.

“We’d been in that position before. We stayed composed and it really helped out,” Dinkel said of erasing the seven-point deficit.

Wasilla combined stops on the defensive side with big plays on offense to grab the lead in the second. Olivia Davies sparked the Wasilla offense with a three-pointer. Dinkel followed an Azlynn Brandenburg steal at midcourt with another three-pointer that gave Wasilla a 20-18 advantage. After a Catherine Baham block, Davies drove to the basket to push Wasilla’s advantage to four points.

“The kids settled in,” Hebert-Truax said. “We had a strategy, attack when we could and slow it down and make them play defense. They held true to what we talked about doing, no matter what the score.”

Davies, Wasilla’s super sophomore, led Wasilla with a game-high 18 points. Dinkel added 11 points and eight rebounds. Baham chipped in 10. Davies and Baham both hit a pair of three-pointers.

It’s the second straight year that Wasilla beat Dimond to win the state title. The crown is also Wasilla’s fifth in seven years and sixth since 2007. But of the half-dozen state championships during her time as head coach of the Warriors, Hebert-Truax said this team has had to overcome the most during a run to a title.

“We went from having a rotation of nine players to about six,” Hebert-Truax said.

The Warriors lost senior Willow Drorbaugh to a season-ending injury during a road trip to Barrow. Senior Mallory Wheeler injured her ankle during a state quarterfinal win over Ketchikan and missed Friday’s semifinal win over East Anchorage. Davies and Brandenburg also missed time during the regular season. Another senior and starter, Kaylyn Kelly, was hobbled by an injury during the regular season.

But in the end, the Warriors prevailed.

“With injury, sickness, everything that went down, when we hit adversity, the kids stepped up and did their job,” Hebert-Truax said.

Dinkel said, regardless, the Warriors battled.

“It was hard,” she said.

Which made the end result, another championship, that much more sweet.

“It’s amazing. To play in the state championship game, and win. It’s the best feeling,” Dinkel said.

It’s the way Dinkel and her fellow seniors — Kelly, Baham, Drorbaugh and Wheeler — wanted to cap their careers.

“I’ve been playing with most of these girls since the second grade. Winning another state title was all we wanted,” Dinkel said.

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

Wasilla 51, Dimond 34

4A girls state title game

Saturday, Anchorage

Dimond 16-2-10-6—34

Wasilla 11-13-15-12—51

Dimond (34) — Bialo 1 0-0 3, Carle 1 1-2 3, Johansen 2 0-0 4, Hajdukovich 4 2-3 11, Pili 3 7-10 13; Totals: 11 10-17 34.

Wasilla (51) — Davies 5 6-10 18, Baham 4 0-0 10, Kelly 0 1-2 1, Brandenburg 1 4-6 7, Wheeler 0 2-2 2, Dinkel 3 4-4 11, Green 1 0-0 2; Totals: 14 17-24 51.

3-point field goals: Dimond 2 (Bialo, Hajdukovich 1), Wasilla 6 (Davies, Baham 2); Total fouls: Dimond 20, Wasilla 12.