The Wrangell boys basketball team lost both home games to Metlakatla in their first competition of the season on Dec. 20 and 21 but playing in Metlakatla this weekend will give the high school squad an opportunity to get even with their southern rivals after an early bye week.
The two-game series (one game Friday and one game Saturday) started off with a bit of a rude awakening for Wrangell. Metlakatla won the Friday game 49-26 in a triumphant display in the Wolves’ home gym. On Saturday, Wrangell was far more competitive, though the Chiefs still managed to eke out a three-point win, beating the Wolves 53-50.
“The positive is that we played better the second night than the first,” head coach Cody Angerman said. “As long as we keep trending that way, that’s all I asked for.”
On Friday, an early Metlakatla lead left Wrangell without much optimism as the game went on. The Chiefs triumphed early in the first quarter, running out to a 17-2 advantage to start the game. Though Wrangell managed to keep it close for the rest of the game, that early 15-point deficit was too much a gap to overcome.
Wrangell’s struggle to score the ball was destined to cause some problems too. The Wolves failed to score double digits in any of the game’s four quarters.
“The first night we looked unenergetic,” Angerman said. “I don’t think we knew what to expect and we should have. Maybe we underestimated the kind of effort we needed to put in.”
The Saturday game, however, gave the home crowd some much needed optimism. Angerman said he emphasized defense and effort going into the second game. As for the offensive side of the ball, the boys took care of that themselves.
Lead by Kyan Stead’s seven first-half threes (yes, seven), Wrangell scored more points in the first half on Saturday than they did in the entire game the day before. After a high-flying first two periods in which Wrangell scored 17 points in each, the Wolves went into halftime with a one-point lead.
After a back-and-forth third, Wrangell entered the fourth up two. But the scoring woes from Friday were not fully exorcized. In a defensive heavy fourth quarter, Metlakatla outlasted the Wolves to win the game 53-50. The Wolves scored just six points in the fourth.
“Metlakatla is probably one of the better teams in the state, if not up there at the top,” Angerman said. “To leave with some reasonable distance of them is pretty good because they’re big, they’re big, they’ve got real good guards and they play pretty disciplined.”
Thanks to some convenient scheduling, Wrangell will be given an early opportunity for revenge. They will play two games at Metlakatla on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 3 and 4. Since the teams’ initial meeting last month, Wrangell had a bye week while Metlakatla played in a holiday tournament in Ketchikan. The Chiefs placed seventh in the eight-team field.
Coming off the bye, Angerman feels he understands how his team needs to improve.
“We’re going to have to do everything we can to keep up the intensity and keep moving forward. Hopefully we can come out with some wins down there.”
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