They lost the title the night or days before and worked hard through the morning to reach another championship game less than 24 hours later. Such was the life of the teams at the double-elimination Region V 1A Basketball Tournament at Thunder Mountain Middle School.
With the Kake Thunderbirds boys topping the Klawock Chieftains 56-40 on Friday for the Region V Championship and Klawock’s girls team nipping the Hoonah Braves 34-33, the two losers had to battle through country wise email marketing list morning games on Saturday to continue into evening clashes for the runner-up berths to the 1A/2A state tournament March 12-15 in Anchorage.
The Klawock boys would find themselves in another
athletic showcase Saturday evening, this time facing Skagway, a team they had manhandled 47-26 back on Thursday.
The Panthers would turn the tables this time, defeating the Chieftains 53-49 and book tickets to Anchorage’s Alaska Airlines Center courts.
Skagway held a 15-9 lead after the first quarter and held Klawock to just two points in the second eight minutes of play for a 31-11 lead at the half. The Chieftains outscored the Panthers 16-8 in the third quarter to trail 39-27. Klawock’s Conner Bagby outscored Skagway by himself in the final eight minutes, tallying 16 of the Chieftains’ 22 points skagway boys hoonah girls in the final stanza, but Skagway held on for the win.
Royce Borst led Skagway with 17 points, Camden Lawson added 12, Malcolm Lawson nine, Kaleb Cochran and Ryder Calver six apiece and Landon Rodig three.