Freshman Kaylyn Easterly goes after a ball headed out of bounds, sparing the photographer's lens a collision at the sidelines during Friday's close game against Metlakatla.
During Friday night's game, the Lady Chiefs started off with the lead Wrangell couldn't quite catch up to until the closing minutes. By the middle of the second quarter, Metlakatla was up 17-12 on Wrangell, but a few turnovers had the Lady Wolves get to within a point's difference. Metlakatla upped its offense, and brought the score again out of reach by the half to 26-20.
The Lady Wolves slightly outscored their visitors during the third quarter, bringing their score to 31-36 by its end. A back-and-forth of points crept up the score on both sides over the next few minutes, but several unresponded goals and a pair of free throws by Abigail Armstrong tied things up at 45, with only 1:23 left in the game.
The pace heated up into the final seconds, but a Metlakatla goal and extra free throw shots gave them the victory, at a close 49-47 over Wrangell.
At noon the next day, the girls played another close game. The Lady Chiefs took an early lead, but Wrangell led at the half 30-27. The two were tied up at 39 again by the end of the third, but Metlakatla managed to get in a few more points for the win, 53-50. In the game, Kaylyn Easterly netted an impressive seven free throws, of eight attempted.
The weekend put the girls now at 1-3 for the season, 1-3-0 for division.
"The girls played really, really hard," commented Wrangell coach Laurie Brown. She commended the visiting team for their efforts, which made for an intense couple of games.
"They really pushed us to work on our full-court press," she said. "At this point I would say as a team they committed to good defense."
Wrangell's junior varsity girls played strong games both days as well, taking two victories. In Friday's game the JV Lady Wolves led throughout, opening with a 20-6 lead over Metlakatla JV in the first quarter and finishing the half with a 36-15 score. The Miss Chiefs made up some ground the next quarter, but Wrangell finished with a winning score of 55-37.
The next morning, Wrangell JV again led throughout the game. Its girls finished the first half with a 30-8 lead over the visitors, and finished with a 49-27 win.
Easterly led the team both games for points, fetching 16 on Friday and 14 the next day. Maddy Harding led both teams for three-pointers, netting four in all over the weekend, and 18 points overall.
The girls depart this evening for games against Haines High School. Brown said she was hoping for some good games this weekend, and that the team would continue working on its defense and transitions.
"We're really looking forward to playing Haines," she said.
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