High School Sports

State hoops notebook: Some teams prevail with youth, others with steals

It's a rarity for a varsity basketball team to be without a single senior, let alone make a run at the state tournament. Yet two of them will play for championships on Saturday.

The Dimond girls and Anchorage Christian girls are showing that young teams can still be among the best.

On Friday, Dimond advanced to the Class 4A state championship with a narrow 61-58 semifinal victory over Colony and ACS upset defending champion Barrow 53-50 in the Class 3A semifinals.

The Lions are one of the youngest teams in the tournament with only juniors two and six freshmen on their 11-player squad. They're led by freshman Destiny Reimers, who earned second-team all-state honors this season.

Dimond has seven juniors on its 10-player roster, and its best player is sophomore Alissa Pili, the Class 4A Player of the Year.

"I just lead by example," Pili said. "I can talk all I want, but it's not gonna do anything if I'm not doing it on the court. So I just lead by example and keep my teammates up and encourage them."

Dimond coach Jim Young said he told his players at the beginning of the season that he expected them all to lead in different ways, no matter their year or position.

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"I basically told them, 'we're gonna have speaking captains for games, but all 10 of you guys are leaders throughout the season,' " Young said. "I think a lot of it is the chemistry of this team is phenomenal and it showed all season.

"Games are getting a little tighter, we're having to fight some adversity, but they're pulling through and I think a lot of it is the closeness of this team."

Sealing with a steal

With time winding down, the Valdez Buccaneers needed two points to tie the game or a 3-pointer to take the lead in its 3A semifinal game against Monroe Catholic.

Monroe senior Divon Davis made sure they didn't get either.

Davis nabbed a steal in the closing seconds and dribbled the length of the court until time expired to seal a 42-40 win for the Rams. Once the final buzzer sounded, the 5-foot-9 junior guard shouted and gave a double fist-pump before being swarmed by teammates.

"I knew they were gonna try to shoot the ball, so I just wanted to get a steal and run the clock," Davis said. "I watched his eyes — I saw (it) coming."

Davis finished with 10 points and five steals, but none were more important than the one that earned the win for the Rams.

"That was amazing," Davis said. "That was the best feeling ever. I can't even describe it."

In Dimond's 53-51 overtime victory over East in the Friday's final game, Eric Jenkins did the same for the Lynx.

With Dimond up by one, he picked off an East pass. Then he drew a foul, and hit one of two free throws to make it a two-point game. East's shot at the buzzer was off-target, putting the Lynx in the championship game.

"It was a blur," Jenkins said. "We went down and got a shot and then they came down on the other end and we were just gonna play hard defense, but they just threw it to us. We were in the right place at the right time."

Stephan Wiebe

Stephan Wiebe writes about all things Alaska sports.

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