Craig Panthers player Wayland Patten (No. 35) is tied up by Wrangell Wolves players Jean-Luc Lewis (No. 15) and Jacob Hammer (No. 44) during the regional championships held in Sitka last week.
The Wrangell Wolves have come to the end of their season after a difficult series of games in Sitka, at the regional tournament. Teams from all over Southeast Alaska came to compete. Wrangell was seeded third going into Regionals, behind Petersburg in second and Metlakatla in first. After three games, however, Wrangell was knocked out of the running for the state championship.
"Whenever you lose it's never going the way you want," said Coach Cody Angerman. "It doesn't make me any less proud of my guys. They fought hard all year to be there."
The Wolves went up against the Petersburg Vikings in their first Regional game, on March 6. It was a very close game for most of the night. The Vikings held the lead for the first half of the game, but only by a narrow margin. The Wolves fought hard in the second half, however, and pulled into the lead by the end of the third quarter with a score of 26 to 28. However, Petersburg was as equally determined in this game, and caught back up in the fourth quarter. The end of the game was drawn out and, at times, very tense. However, the Wolves lost the game with a final score of 42 to 38. Wrangell was out of the running for first seed at State. However, the runner up position was still open to them.
The second game took place on Thurs., March 7, against the Craig Panthers. The Wolves and Panthers stayed fairly close together in points in the first quarter, with Wrangell leading at 13 to Craig's 11. However, by the second quarter things were clearly in Wrangell's favor. The final score was 39 to 73, a win for the Wolves.
The third game, however, did not go in Wrangell's favor at all. What would be their final game of the season, on March 8, was against the Haines Glacier Bears. Angerman said that they had played against Haines several times through the season. He said that his team was familiar with how they played, but that winning against them was never a sure thing.
"They came ready to play, ready to roll," he said. "I think we just had an off day."
The Glacier Bears had a strong lead against the Wolves by the end of the first half, 36 to 19. Wrangell tried to close the gap, but could not catch up with Haines. The final score was a second, and final loss for Wrangell at 69 to 35.
Angerman reiterated that he was very proud of his team. Regionals was not where he wanted the season to end, he said, but he was happy with all the hard work the team had put in through the year. Next season holds a lot of work for the Wolves, he added. Several key players are seniors and will not be returning next year, he said, but there are quite a few promising players coming in as freshmen. For now, he said everyone is just taking some time off to be with their families, but basketball is still there in the back of his mind.
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