Lady Wolves come home after two narrow losses at state

The Wrangell Lady Wolves had a very strong season this year. They went 11 and 3 in their regular season, their only losses coming from the Craig Lady Panthers and the Metlakatla Miss Chiefs. At regionals, held in Sitka earlier this month, the Lady Wolves took their first regional championship in 25 years.

At Regionals, they beat school rival the Petersburg Lady Vikings, as well as the Miss Chiefs. Along with the championship, they won the second seed in the state tournament in Anchorage, which was held last week from March 14 - 16. After some hard fought games, however, the Lady Wolves ended their season with two losses.

"We did not have the tournament we were hoping for," said Coach Laurie Brown. "We had high hopes going in."

Their first game was against Deanna High School, from Unalakleet. It was a tight game from start to finish. Brown said the team really struggled in the first half, especially on defense. Unalakleet demonstrated a lot of skill in making three pointers, Brown said. They adjusted their strategy at half time, but it was not enough to turn things around. It was close, but the Lady Wolves lost the game with a score of 55 to 58.

"They really just killed us on three point shots," Brown said.

Their second game was against the Unalaska Raiders. This game was very hard fought, Brown said. Wrangell held the lead at half time, with a score of 31 to 28. However, Unalaska was better at fighting for rebounds and slowly took the lead. The final score was 40 to 49.

"They outplayed us," Brown said. "They were a tough team."

With that second loss, Wrangell was out of the tournament. Unalakleet and Unalaska went on to take third and sixth place in the championship, respectively. First place went to Tikigaq School, of Point Hope.

Brown said that while it was not the way she wanted things to go, she was very proud of her team's performance through the season. The Lady Wolves might have peaked a little early this year, she said, and also pointed out that there were several injuries on the team through the season. They had a lot of ups and downs this year, she said. The tournament did reveal some areas her team could work to improve, she said. Mainly, she wants the team to have a stronger defensive game next year, and to become faster and more aggressive. While the state tournament was hard for them, she said that her team worked really hard this season and that she was proud of them.

"I just want to thank the girls and the community for all their support, and the parents," Brown said.