Lady Wolves show improvement

Impressive transitional defense, pulse-raising fourth-quarter play and crisp passing weren't enough for the Lady Wolves to overcome the Miss Chiefs.

The Wrangell High School girls' basketball team lost two to the visiting Metlakatla squad last weekend. The Miss Chiefs took Friday night's game 46-27, and edged the Lady Wolves 40-20 in the Saturday night sequel.

Head Coach Edna Abella-Nore sounded a little like an alarm clock, based on the number of times she shouted "Wake up!" from the sidelines on both Friday and Saturday. The Lady Wolves are struggling with maintaining an even competitive pace through the course of a game, Abella-Nore said.

"It's not the endurance," she said. "It's all mental game right now. We come out with a bang in the fourth quarter. We finished hard. The other team, in the second half, they're huffing and puffing. Endurance-wise we're there. Condition-wise we're there. It's just a lot of the mental game that the girls need to figure out themselves, and when I say 'Hey, wake up,' that's what I really mean."

The Lady Wolves came to life in the fourth quarter Friday night, and they brought the crowd in the high school gym with them. Wrangell scored 14 fourth-quarter points Friday, doubling their second-quarter output to close out the night.

Senior Erica Smith led the Wrangell scorers Friday with 11 points. Smith scored the majority of her points from the field, tallying five field goals and tacking on a single free throw in the second quarter. Sophomore Taylor Bean followed with nine, four from the field and an additional free throw, all in the fourth quarter.

The Lady Wolves appeared far more likely to catch the ref's eye, based on the number of personal fouls called in either game. Bean fouled out Friday night and junior Darian Meissner fouled out Saturday night. The Lady Wolves received 21 personal fouls to the Miss Chiefs' 13 personal fouls Friday. The calls were more evenly distributed Saturday night, with Wrangell marking 14 to Metlakatla's 13.

It was "kinda rough that I had a lot of my players in foul trouble," she said. "We were kinda on eggshells there."

"I think there were some calls that probably didn't need to be called, and I think there were some calls on the other team that weren't called that shoulda been called, like carrying the ball," she added. "Maybe if we'd gotten those fouls when we were attacking the basket, onto the line, maybe it might have helped a little bit."

An aggressive offense saw Smith, junior Marsha McCay, and Bean each tally three points the hard way, two points on the drive and a follow-up free throw.

The Miss Chiefs answered back from the field, particularly junior Theresa Wellington-McGilton, who led the visitors with 18 points, the majority scored from behind the three-point line. Wellington-McGilton scored 12 from beyond the arc and tacked on six more.

Senior Monica Hawyard trailed Wellington-McGilton with 12, shooting eight from the field and four more from the line.

While the scoring gap was larger the second night, the Lady Wolves performed better, Abella-Nore said.

"I think tonight (Saturday) went way better," she said. "We came out a lot stronger than we did last night. We did lose by a ton, but it's alright."

"We came out harder tonight with rebounds and all that stuff, and our press, but other than that, it should have been our game," she added. "We got a lot of looks at the basket. We just need to convert those to points."

Meissner led the Lady Wolves' offense Saturday, knocking down eight field goals and one more from the line. Smith shot two from the field and one-for-two from the line.

The Lady Wolves limited Wellington-McGilton to only two points Saturday night, but Hayward stepped up to make the difference and carry the Miss Chiefs. Hayward notched 7 field goals and shot five-for-six from the line to lead the Metlakatla scorers with 19 points.

Metlakatla senior Alecia Henderson followed with five points, two field goals and a single free-throw.

The Lady Wolves continue their season at home against Haines this weekend.