The girls and boys basketball teams brought back no awards but learned some lessons in a preseason tournament in Ketchikan last week.
The Clarke Cochrane Christmas Classic is a longstanding Ketchikan tournament, typically held between the holidays. As with previous years, Alaska teams paired off with schools from as far afield as New Mexico ahead of their regular season openers.
The Wrangell High School boys opened the tournament on December 28, matched up with Washington’s Anacortes High School. A well-regarded team in its own division at home, Anacortes would go on to win the tournament, and the game ended up going roughly for Wrangell.
“They basically put the hurt on us,” Wrangell coach Cody Angerman said afterward. Their opponents took the lead from the get-go, with the score wrapping up in a 39-83 loss for the Wolves.
In the consolation bracket now, the team went against the familiar faces of Thunder Mountain, which had lost its opening game to West Anchorage 44-75. Angerman’s team started their game on the wrong foot, putting only 10 points on the board during the first half. Players redoubled their efforts during the second half, bringing Wrangell’s loss to a more respectable 52-71 score.
“The scoreboard looked a little bit better than it actually was,” he said.
In its last match for the tournament on Saturday morning, Wrangell played against students from Navajo Preparatory School in Farmington, New Mexico. The Wolves put on a competitive show, taking a slight lead during the second half. Angerman felt the team could have won the match, but with several key plays Navajo Prep was able to come out with the win. Wrangell finished its bracket in eighth place overall.
Wrangell’s girls fared about the same over the weekend, up first against Auburn, Washington’s Thomas Jefferson High School.
“They were really big,” Lady Wolves coach Laurie Brown recalled. The visiting team used its height to its advantage during the game, taking the win. Like the boys’ opening game, the girls had faced the eventual tournament winners at the very start. “The girls played hard. It was a good, competitive game.”
The following morning, Wrangell was up against University Preparatory from Redding, California. While still a larger school than Wrangell’s, Brown thought the teams more evenly matched during their Friday morning game.
“We came out with an alright first half, but the second half was rough,” she said. The Uni Prep Panthers had a high-scoring third period, finishing the game with a 47-26 win.
In its last match, Wrangell competed for seventh place with Kenai Central High School. The Kardinals had a solid offensive game, and finished the game with a 62-46 win over the Lady Wolves.
“It was a hard weekend for the girls, particularly humbling,” Brown said afterward.
But the benefit of the tournament for both Wrangell teams was that it exposed them to competitive play ahead of their regular schedule. Angerman said lessons had been learned, and that the team could move past its performance.
“It’s early and we have a lot of ways to go,” he said. “From here on out, we’re going to try to be the toughest team and the grittiest team, and the best at defense.”
Both Wrangell teams next head to Petersburg this weekend for the start of its regular season, with the junior varsity and varsity squads each playing Friday and Saturday. The two schools share a strong rivalry, and both Brown and Angerman expect it to be a good weekend for the kids.
“They should be good games for us,” she said.
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