Wasilla coach Jeannie Hebert-Truax talks with her team during a timeout. Photo by Bruce Eggleston/MatSu Sports
The Wasilla girls basketball team will be the No. 2 seed at next week’s state tournament, but they are No. 1 in this week’s Alaska Sports Report/Class 4A Coaches Poll.
Fresh off winning the Northern Lights Conference Tournament title, Wasilla took the top spot after receiving 11 of 12 first-place votes and 64 points in the final poll of the season.
Last week’s No. 1 Colony – the NLC regular-season champion based on a three-way tiebreaker – will be the No. 1 seed for March Madness.
The Knights earned the other first-place vote and 49 points, outscoring Mountain City Christian Academy’s 33 points.
Colony won three of the four meetings against Wasilla in the regular season, but the Warriors won the big one in the conference tournament after posting a 69-46 victory in the title game.
Wasilla’s Mylee Anderson led the way with 17 points while Savanah Kroon (14), Layla Hays (11) and Katie Jackson (10) all reached double digits.
Wasilla (19-5) hit six 3-pointers and outscored Colony 40-21 in the second half.
The day before, Wasilla beat MCCA 68-55 in the semifinals behind Hays’ 34 points and Anderson’s 18.
Wasilla’s Layla Hays scores on a reverse layup. Photo by Bruce Eggleston/MatSu Sports
Hays, a 6-foot-5 surefire Division I player, had 13 points in the second quarter and 10 points in the third quarter.
Mountain City (formerly ACS) has had four losses against Alaska competition in the last six years – all against Wasilla, coached by legendary bench boss Jeannie Hebert-Truax, who owns 596 career wins.
Southeast Conference champion Thunder Mountain moved up to No. 4 in the prep poll with 21 points after leapfrogging Dimond.
The Lynx fell to No. 5 after losing the Cook Inlet Conference Tournament title game on a buzzer beater by the league’s player of the year, freshman Aryanna Watson of Service
Alaska Sports Report/Class 4A Girls Coaches Poll
| RANK | TEAM | POINTS |
| 1 | Wasilla (19-5) | 64 |
| 2 | Colony (23-3) | 49 |
| 3 | Mountain City Christian Academy (21-4) | 33 |
| 4 | Thunder Mountain (22-3) | 21 |
| 5 | Dimond (22-6) | 12 |
ALSO RECEIVING VOTES: Service 5.
On the boys side, East remained the unanimous No. 1 team after receiving all 15 first-place votes.
The T-birds (25-1) extended their 16-game winning streak after beating Service in the CIC Tournament title game. Despite the loss, the Cougars jumped up to No. 2 in the prep poll in a sign of respect for the uber competitive Anchorage league.
Fairbanks teams claimed the next two spots in the rankings with Monroe Catholic moving up to No. 3 and West Valley slipping to No. 4. Monroe beat West Valley 42-36 in a hotly contested Mid Alaska Conference Tournament title game.
West slipped to No. 5 after finishing third at the CIC Tournament.
Thunder Mountain and Wasilla also received votes. This was the first time the Warriors received votes all season despite the team losing to Palmer in the NLC Tournament title game.
Alaska Sports Report/Class 4A Boys Coaches Poll
| RANK | TEAM | POINTS |
| 1 | East Anchorage (25-1) | 75 |
| 2 | Service (20-8) | 55 |
| 3 | Monroe Catholic (20-5) | 37 |
| 4 | West Valley (21-4) | 30 |
| 5 | West Anchorage (18-9) | 21 |
ALSO RECEIVING VOTES: Thunder Mountain 4; Wasilla 3.