Coming back from their opening-round loss to Mt. Edgecumbe, the Wolves beat the Vikings in overtime. (KCAW photo/Ingfrid Olney-Miller)
The Petersburg and Sitka girls meet Friday at 3 PM. The Sitka and Mt. Edgecumbe boys play at 11:15 AM. You can find the link to the live stream here.
The Sitka Wolves have earned a re-match with the Mt. Edgecumbe Braves Friday, with the 3A Region V Basketball championship on the line.
Sitka eliminated Petersburg Thursday morning, 55-53 in overtime, to get their shot at the Braves.
Daily Sitka Sentinel sports editor Tom Hesse is in Ketchikan to cover the tournament. He says the game was tied with less than a minute to play, and it boiled down to a test of nerves.
On the final possession, with 30 seconds left, Sitka in-bounded the ball to Tevin Bayne. Tevin finished with 21 points, and he’s easily the best-scorer on the Wolves, he can create his own shots. And the Petersburg defense just zeroed-in on him, and he held the ball for 20 seconds, just staring them down until he went to work to get that last shot which — at worst — would mean going into double overtime. And he drove to the basket, got his shot up, and Trevan Coleman snuck in on the weak side, pulled down the rebound, and got fouled with 2.4 seconds left to play. He went to the line and nailed both free-throws.
Sitka now goes on to play Mt. Edgecumbe on Friday. The Braves and Wolves split their regular season games, but Mt. Edgecumbe is undefeated in this tournament so far — and beat Sitka by 11 points on Wednesday.
Hesse says the entire basketball season has been pointing toward this game.
Archie Young, the coach of the Braves, is always building his team toward this week. So you never really know how good they’re going to be until they get to that last week of the season. And for Sitka, they’ve had roster turnover like crazy, from injuries and illness. They’ve had the same starting five now for five games in a row, and it’s the first time they’ve ever played that many games together. So they’ve been kind of out-of-sorts, and that’s what set them back early in their opening game against Mt. Edgecumbe.
If Mt. Edgecumbe wins Friday’s game, they’ll take the Region V title. If Sitka wins, there’ll be a one-game playoff against the same two teams on Saturday afternoon.
The Sitka Lady Wolves may have eliminated Mt. Edgecumbe, but they’ll have to beat Petersburg twice to win the Region V title. (KCAW photo/Ingfrid Olney-Miller)
The girls’ side of the conference is just as close, according to Hesse. The Sitka Lady Wolves eliminated the Mt. Edgecumbe Lady Braves Thursday morning, 43-41.
Hesse says the game turned on an in-bounds steal by Sitka’s brilliant guard, Sid Riggs, with the score tied at 41-all.
And sure enough, you could not have stopped Sid Riggs from getting that ball with a U.N. binding resolution. As soon as Mt. Edgecumbe in-bounded, she ripped the ball from Renatta Olson and laid it up for the go-ahead basket with 9 seconds left, and on the way back down the court she blocked the desperation 3-pointer that would have won the game.
Hesse says the Petersburg Lady Vikings are in the drivers seat so far in this tournament, having beaten both Sitka and Mt. Edgecumbe. And although Sitka never bested them in the regular season, the Lady Vikings are not necessarily dominant. Region V girls basketball has been extremely competitive this season.
Of the top five teams in the state, most people will generally tell you that only three of them are in this conference.
But only one of them can go to state, and it will be either the Sitka Lady Wolves or the Petersburg Lady Vikings, depending on the outcome of Friday’s game. As with the boys, Sitka will have to beat Petersburg twice to win the title.
The Petersburg and Sitka girls meet Friday at 3 PM. The Sitka and Mt. Edgecumbe boys play at 11:15 AM. You can find the link to the live stream here.
