Kyan Stead (left) and Keaton Gadd walk off the court after Wrangell's Jan. 16 victory against Haines. Gadd's three three-pointers in the fourth quarter lifted the Wolves over their rivals.
Trevyn Gillen runs back on defense after scoring a three-pointer against Haines on Jan. 17. Gillen starred in the second half of the Friday matchup against the Glacier Bears. The team won both games against Haines.
Editor’s note: The Alaska School Activities Association later decided -- after the Sentinel went to press this week -- that the overtime period for the Thursday, Jan. 16, boys high school basketball game should never have been played. ASAA has apologized to both teams. The official score for the game will no longer include the additional points from Saturday’s overtime period. Thursday’s final score was Wrangell 55-54.
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The boys high school basketball team won three times in two games. Nope, that's not a typo.
After Haines noticed a scoring error in the first night of play on Thursday, what looked like a one-point Wrangell win became a tie. The Wolves and their opponents filed back into the gym on Saturday - which was supposed to be an off-day - to play a four-minute overtime period to complete the Thursday game.
Wrangell again won - though this time it counted - defeating Haines three times in three days, though the conference standings will show a 2-0 series sweep.
In a home series against Haines on Thursday and Friday, Jan. 16-17, plus the Saturday addition, Wrangell defeated the Glacier Bears 64-63 in the first game after the overtime and 60-52 in the second game. The pair of wins propelled the Wolves to a 4-2 conference record. They now sit third in Southeast and are just one of two Southeast teams with four wins.
Likely no one in the packed arena on Thursday would call Wrangell's win a pretty one, but the gritty matchup made for rather entertaining basketball. Jackson Powers came off the bench early and gave a strong first-quarter performance. Powers' prowess combined with Kyan Stead's 10 points gave Wrangell an early 15-9 lead.
After an unpolished pair of middle quarters from the Wolves, the two teams headed into the fourth quarter tied at 39. Wrangell needed a spark plug, an electric drive into a fleeting engine.
And then head coach Cody Angerman subbed in Keaton Gadd.
One three.
Another three.
A third(!) three.
The spark plug was firing.
Though Wrangell initially appeared to have won the game by a single point, the later-realized scoring error meant it was a tie, and the teams needed to play an overtime period.
On Saturday, with just a couple seconds on the overtime clock, the Wolves were down by two points.
But then they got the ball to Daniel Harrison who scored a two-pointer to tie the game. But then, a whistle. Harrison had been fouled as he shot. After drilling the free throw with 0.8 seconds, the clock ran out and Wrangell won.
This wasn't the only time Harrison proved too much for the Glacier Bears' zone defense. After being held to just five points on Thursday, the forward made quick work of Haines on Friday. He exploded in the first quarter, scoring 10 straight points to open the game for the Wolves.
But early foul trouble meant his scoring streak ended in the first quarter.
After Stead's steal and score gave Wrangell a 12-11 lead to open the second quarter, Angerman seemed to find a lineup that worked well against a Haines team that boasted athletic guards and lanky rim protectors.
For Wrangell, the duo of Powers and Gadd provided a frustrating combination to play against. The pair, an athletic tandem who just always seem to find themselves in the right spots, caused problems for Haines on both sides of the ball.
Coming on the back of a 4-0 Haines run, Boomchain Loucks scored a pair of floaters, Lucas Schneider drilled a deep three and Powers added another layup to give the Wolves a 26-22 lead heading into halftime.
When Trevyn Gillen exploded in the third with a pair of threes and eight total points, the Wolves lead proved insurmountable. Despite a late rally from Haines, Wrangell went on to win 60-52.
The Wolves showed they were capable of doing something Angerman has wanted to see all year: sharing the scoring load. By the time the final buzzer sounded, nine players scored points on Friday, with six of them scoring five or more.
Next up, the Wolves will travel to Craig for a multi-school tournament Thursday through Saturday, Jan. 23-25, before returning home for a series against Craig on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1.
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