Andrew Lee
As Andrew Lee sat in the passenger seat of a vehicle driving away from the Alaska Airlines Center on Wednesday night, he tried his best to articulate the reaction to history being made by the Thunder Mountain girls basketball team.
“Well, in a word, we’re elated,” said the Falcons coach, now in his fourth season. “We’re overjoyed. All the adjectives.”
On the opening day of Alaska’s 50th girls state tournament, Thunder Mountain celebrated the golden anniversary in style. For the first time, the Falcons won a state quarterfinals game.
Junior Kerra Baxter posted a double-double (20 points, 10 rebounds) as Thunder Mountain downed Dimond 58-47 in the 4A quarterfinals. Sophomore point guard Cambry Lockhart connected on all four of her 3-point attempts and finished with 16 points for the Falcons, ranked fourth in the season’s final Alaska Sports Report/Class 4A Coaches Poll.
Glennallen won the first girls state tournament in 1972 and the pandemic canceled the 2020 installment. On Friday, Thunder Mountain (23-3) will take a crack at second-ranked Colony in the Juneau school’s maiden voyage to the state semifinals. This is the Falcons’ third March Madness appearance (2015, 2023 and 2024).
ASAA/First National Bank Alaska
Class 4A Girls State Tournament
At Alaska Airlines
Wednesday
Quarterfinals
#2 Colony 62, North Pole 33
#1 Wasilla 47, Bartlett 22
#4 Thunder Mountain 58, #5 Dimond 47
#3 Mountain City Christian 59, Service 54
Friday
Consolation
9:30am North Pole (11-10) vs. #5 Dimond (22-7)
11:00am Service (18-10) vs. Bartlett (16-11)
Semifinals
3:15pm #4 Thunder Mountain (23-3) vs. #2 Colony (24-3)
4:45pm #1 Wasilla (20-5) vs. #3 Mountain City Christian (22-4)
# ASR/Class 4A Coaches Poll rankings
The Knights handed the Falcons two losses – 71-31 and 57-48 – when the teams met last month down in Southeast. Colony defeated North Pole in its Wednesday quarterfinal.
“We were a little shorthanded (in those games) but we’re making no excuses,” Lee said of the previous matchups. “Colony came in and kicked our butts. But I think we got a chance to see what we would be up against. We’ve gotten our act together and have played better.”
Against fifth-ranked Dimond, Thunder Mountain brushed off a first-quarter deficit to lead 23-21 at halftime. The Falcons outscored the Lynx 10-3 in the second quarter and pulled away with a 20-12 run in the fourth.
Dimond’s Maile Wilcox was closely guarded by the Falcons. Photo courtesy Juneau Empire
The Cook Inlet Conference regular-season winner, Dimond (22-7) was led by senior Natalia Rodriguez’s 15 points and junior Mecca Goldsberry’s 10. Junior Evan Hamey finished with five points and 12 rebounds.
Thunder Mountain’s presence in the state’s final four could be its one and only. The Juneau School Board last week approved a plan to make Thunder Mountain, which opened in 2008, the town’s junior high. High school students would then attend Juneau-Douglas High.
“We’re sort of on a mission,” Lee said. “Whether it’s incentive or not with the potential of the (high) school closing.”
DIMOND (47) – Ridgeway 0, Rodriguez 15, Hamey 5, Scott 0, Wilcox 8, Maisey 0, Cassidy 0, Ka. MacDonald 6, Pederson 3, Goldsberry 10, Ki. MacDonald 0.
THUNDER MOUNTAIN (58) – Lockhart 16, Gates 2, J. Carandang 7, M. Carandang 6, Dobson 0, Erickson 0, Frommherz 0, K. Baxter 20, C. Baxter 5, Hartman 0, Wilson 0, Strong 0.
Dimond 18 3 14 12 – 47
Thunder Mountain 13 10 15 20 – 62
Colony’s Morgan Ainsworth lines up a free throw. Photo by Stephanie Burgoon/Alaska Sports Report
COLONY 62, NORTH POLE 33
A pair of monster quarters – the first and the third – were all second-ranked Colony needed to march into the state semifinals with a 62-33 win over unranked North Pole.
The Knights outscored the Patriots 18-3 in the opening eight minutes and enjoyed a 23-5 run in the third. Junior Alycia Shelley pumped in five of seven three-point attempts to lead Colony with 17 points. She also added five assists.
Juniors Hallie Clark and Tonya Karpow added 14 and 12 points, respectively. Colony, which earned the state tournament’s top seeded after grabbing the hotly contested Northern Lights Conference regular-season title, improved to 24-3.
The Knights are in search of this first 4A state title since 2008 and fifth in program history. They didn’t face North Pole, the Mid Alaska Conference champion, in the regular season.
The Patriots fell to 11-10. Freshman Taimane Skipps made only one of 10 field-goal attempts and still managed to lead her team with nine points.
NORTH POLE (33) – T. Guzman 3, Croan 2, Glynn 0, J. Skipps 8, Wigley 0, Good 0, Pearson 4, Proctor 0, M. Guzman 5, Kimmel 2, T. Skipps 9.
COLONY (62) – Waggoner 3, Ar. Shelley 0, Wiestemberg 6, Hopkins 2, Al. Shelley 17, Ainsworth 6, Larsen 0, Clark 14, Noll 2, Smith 0, Karpow 12, Spencer 0.
North Pole 3 15 5 10 – 33
Colony 18 12 23 9 – 62
North Pole’s Tiahna Guzman closes in on Colony shooter Alycia Shelley. Photo by Stephanie Burgoon/Alaska Sports Report
WASILLA 47, BARTLETT 22
The 597th win in Jeannie Hebert-Truax’s illustrious Wasilla coaching career accomplished the main goal. The top-ranked Warriors’ 47-22 win over Bartlett placed the winners in the tournament semifinals yet again as they shoot for the program’s eighth state championship and first since 2017.
But shoot, the shooting sure was off for nearly everyone involved in this quarterfinal.
Wasilla junior Mylee Anderson scored a game-high 20 points, connecting on 9 of 13 field-goal attempts, including 7 of 9 shooting from inside the three-point arc. Junior Layla “Double Double” Hays did her usual work, finishing with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
The teams combined to hit only five of a combined 41 three-point tries – Wasilla finished 3 of 20, Bartlett 2 of 21. The Warriors (20-5) outscored Bartlett 25-7 in the second half. Wasilla scored a 47-28 win in the regular season when the teams met Feb. 24.
Golden Bears senior Yatzary Encarnacion led her squad Wednesday with nine points. Bartlett fell to 16-11.
BARTLETT (22) – Jackson 0, Avi. Stoute 2, Oliver 6, Ava. Stoute 2, Encarnacion 9, Haliburton 0, S. Maugaotega 0, M. Maugaotega 3, Meno 0, Leremia 0, Yang 0.
WASILLA (47) – Bruno 0, Merchant 0, Kroon 8, Lynch 0, Anderson 20, Breshears 3, Boling 2, Gittlein 0, Bredberg 0, Hays 12, Kauffman 0.
Bartlett 4 11 5 2 – 22
Wasilla 8 14 12 13 – 47
Mountain City Christian’s Morgan Maldonado was clutch at crunch time. Photo by Stephanie Burgoon/Alaska Sports Report
MOUNTAIN CITY 59, SERVICE 54
Senior Morgan Maldonado sank four free throws in the final 12 seconds to help close out a 12-point fourth quarter. Her efforts helped hoist third-ranked Mountain City Christian Academy to a 59-54 come-from-behind victory over an ultra-game Service squad.
Maldonado finished with 17 points. Mountain City (22-3) will face Wasilla for the fourth time this season in Friday’s semifinal, a rematch of the last two March Madness 4A finales both captured by the Lions. The Warriors won all three previous matchups this season – the Feb. 2 47-32 victory ended MCAA’s six-year old winning streak against Alaska opponents at 133 games.
Service (18-11) lost for the first time in 11 games. Freshman all-everything guard Aryanna Watson scored 29 points in her state tournament debut.
The Cougars led 33-26 at halftime. MCCA outscored Service in the second half, 33-21 in the final two quarters.
SERVICE (54) – Wells 0, Ferran 5, Kochutin 0, Lealaisalanoa 9, Watson 29, Vanilau 2, Silva 6, Erickson 0, Williams 0, Leniu 3.
MOUNTAIN CITY (59) – Nyat. Majiok 5, Maldonado 17, Nyaw. Majiok 6, Mathot 4, Alex 4, Kronberger 12, Pastana 0, Siatini 0, Schaeffer 11, Gundersen 0.
Service 12 21 13 8 – 54
Mountain City 7 19 17 16 – 59
CIC Player of the Year Aryanna Watson drives for two of her 29. Photo by Stephanie Burgoon/Alaska Sports Report