March Madness Alaska, the state championships for Alaska basketball, feature an unpresidented, four victories in four opening-round games for the teams from the Kenai Peninsula in 3A and 4A basketball: Soldotna girls, Soldotna boys, Kenai girls and Nikiski girls.
The winner’s-bracket rounds on Friday at the Alaska Airlines Center at UAA include:
SoHi Girls 36 -Dimond 46
…The Soldotna girls put a scare in #1 Dimond; however, SoHi surrenders a 14-4 run to the Lynx down the stretch as Dimond downs the Stars 46-36 in the winner’s-bracket, semi-final on Friday.
Aliann Schmidt lead the Stars with 14 points. Alissa Pili lead Dimond scoring 24 points and recording 11 rebounds.
The Stars move to the 3rd place game on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. at the Alaska Airlines Center. Broadcast will be on ESPN 1140AM.
SoHi Boys 48 – Ketchikan 53
The SoHi boys held a 35-33 lead into the fourth quarter before falling to Ketchikan 53-48 in the semi-final on Friday. Jersey Truesdell scored 30 points for the Stars.
SoHi faces Colony in the 3rd place 4A game on Saurday at 10 a.m.
Kenai Girls 30 – ACS 51
The Kardinals girls move to the 3A, 3rd place game on Saturday to face Barrow at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday.
Nikiski Girls 62 – Barrow 54
The Bulldog girls advance to the 3A girls state championship game with a comeback 62-54 victory over Barrow.
Nikiski faces ACS in the girls championship game at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
All broadcasts are streamed live and free at www.radiokenai.com
All game results and Saturday schedule will be updated on this page throughout Friday’s tournament play.
Friday State Tournament Results
3A Girls
Mt. Edgecumbe 63 – Kotzebue 43
Galena 47 – Valdez 42
Kenai 30 – ACS 51
3A Boys
…Sitka 54 – Nome 50 OT
…Monroe 65 – Barrow 51
…ACS 64 – Eielson 62
…Valdez 62 – Grace 50
4A Girls
…West 56 – Ketchikan 37
…Wasilla 55 – West Valley 48
…Bartlett 54 – Chugiak 44
4A Boys
East 77 – West 36
West Valley 50 – Palmer 44
Dimond 42 – Colony 34
Game results from the first round on Thursday are available on sports page at www.radiokenai.com.
