By KLAS STOLPE
Sentinel Staff Writer
Aside from the final 55-49 score there were no winners or losers in Tuesday night’s “Bridge Battle” between the visiting Mt. Edgecumbe Braves from Japonski Island and the host Sitka Wolves on Baranof.
Mt. Edgecumbe earned the victory behind 25 points from senior Bear Brown (Anchorage), and Sitka earned respect with a swarming defense led by seniors Aedon Dumag and CJ Taccad, and juniors Gavin Flores and Asa Demmert.
“Coach makes sure we work on defense first, before offense,” Taccad said. “So in practice we’re mostly working on defense.”
Mt. Edgecumbe senior Bear Brown shoots a free throw against Sitka during the Braves 55-49 “Battle of the Bridge” win over the Wolves in front of a large fan base from both schools in the SHS gym. (Sentinel Photo by Klas Stolpe
For 32 minutes defense fueled both squads, forcing opening turnovers in the first game’s possessions before Mt. Edgecumbe sr. Emmett Dunaway (Dillinghame) hit the first basket.
Flores buried Sitka’s first shot and Taccad stole the ball for a 4-2 lead.
Sitka junior Gavin Flores and senior CJ Taccad trap Mt. Edgecumbe senior Emmett Dunaway during the “Battle of the Bridge” cross-town basketball game at SHS Tuesday. (Sentinel Photo by Klas Stolpe)
Dunaway matched the score and jr. teammate David Dock (Togiak) added a free throw for what would be the Braves last lead, 5-4, until the final minute of the game.
Taccad buried back-to-back shots from behind the arch on Sitka’s next two possessions and the Wolves carried that momentum into a 14-9 advantage after one quarter of play.
“It’s just the rivalry, you know,” Taccad said after the game. “We lost to them last year so that’s another motivational drive for us. I took this game really hard. We will meet them again, four more times.”
After Mt. Edgecumbe jr. Keith Johns (Glennallen) opened the second quarter with a fast break layup, Sitka sr. Austin Morrison answered inside and Dumag upped the team’s energy on defense, resulting in his own basket inside and then another from beyond the arch for a 21-11 advantage and a Braves timeout.
“Sometimes I just have to be a leader and show them that this is what I expect, what we expect,” Dumag said of the team’s defense. “I want to play hard. I try to bring that onto the court. We have to take each game to heart. Everyone should have their own personal goal and we all will definitely stay hungry, in the sense that we want it more. And we have to show that on the court when we play defense.”
Sitka showed everyone except Brown, who scored the last 8 points of the stanza for the Braves and closed the score to 25-19 at the half.
“We played really well defensively the first half,” Sitka coach Jarrett Hirai said. “Our press was working well and in our favor at times. You knew they were going to make a run, it was just when and how long. We started playing on our heels and we were still up 4-5 points. Our team hasn’t been in those positions too many times this season and kind of got caught in a panic, making some poor decisions that cost us down the stretch. Both teams bring big crowds that support their school and team well. It makes for a great environment for basketball.”
Sitka’s third quarter lead was never more than 6 points and Flores and sr. John Arce helped the Wolves to a 33-27 advantage with just one quarter remaining.
“Down the stretch when they started to catch up, we kind of paused for a minute,” Flores said. “Then the team got together, then our energy starting coming more and we started moving on with the defense. When we push the action it causes our opponents to push the ball and that creates more turnovers for us.”
Six Wolves would find the basket for 16 points in the fourth quarter, including 6 by Morrison. Demmert and Flores started by pushing the lead to 10 points, 37-27, and after Brown scored for the Braves, Flores drove through the key and dished off to sr. John Arce for 39-29.
Mt. Edgecumbe, however, would have their best quarter, scoring 28 points.
“The kids kept playing hard,” Mt. Edgecumbe coach Archie Young said. “We talked at halftime about how we had been on a bad run and we just needed to make a point to be different and not just give games away and just fold over, we needed not just to play hard but to make the choice to be different from here on out. I was really pleased to see, and I felt like, the kids did fight. We were able to dictate tempo at the end of the game and somehow, don’t ask me how, we were able to score more in the fourth quarter than we did the whole game. I’ll take it.”
Baskets by Brown, one off a lob by Dunaway, closed the Braves to 39-32, but Morrison answered with a made shot and foul for Sitka’s last 10-point lead.
“They have some big guys and they move a lot,” Morrison said. “We just really have to work on our box outs. We’ve been working on it at practice and we just have to execute it in the game. Just being able to move and remember who is near and who we have to get. With a zone we are working on going to get a guy in our area. I think the next time we play them we will have that on lock and will be able to box them out and get all those rebounds.”
Mt. Edgecumbe trailed 42-32 when so. Frederick Myers (Pilot Station) scored on consecutive possessions caused by their own press, then on the next offensive possession collided under the basket with an opponent’s elbow and was helped off the court, his evening over and stitches needed following the contest. Myers and Johns had been called up from junior varsity to help starting so. guard RJ Alstrom-Beans (St. Mary’s) replace injured players.
Mt. Edgecumbe so. Jeff Adams (Mentasta) hit his only field goal of the game with 1:50 remaining and the Braves trailing 47-41.
Dunaway saw a screen forming and threw a skip pass to the arch in front of the Braves bench and Adams did not hesitate, lofting a shot over a closing defender.
“I was scared that I was going to miss,” Adams said.
The ball found all cotton to bring the score to 47-44.
“Playing Sitka I just try my best every game, they bring that out in you,” he said.
A missed shot on Sitka’s next possession was rebounded by Edgecumbe’s Dock who was fouled and sank a 1-and-1 to bring the score to 47-46.
Sitka sr. Morgan Simic was the recipient of a press-breaking layup just seconds later to up the Wolves’ lead to 49-46.
Sitka senior Morgan Simic (13), junior Mason Eubanks and senior Austin
Morrison block out Mt. Edgecumbe junior Keith Johns (2) and senior
Emmett Dunaway, Tuesday in the SHS gym. (Sentinel/Klas Stolpe)
Mt. Edgecumbe’s Johns was fouled and he missed the front end of a 1-and-1, but Dunaway snatched the rebound and put it back up off the glass to bring the score back to 49-48 with 1:13 remaining.
The Braves pressed the inbounds pass and it sailed untouched out of bounds, meaning they would get possession under their own basket. After a time-out Brown got loose on the restart and gave Mt. Edgecumbe their first lead since the opening minutes of the game.
With 50 seconds remaining Sitka pushed the ball up court, found an angle to the basket, but a pass was tipped by the Braves’ Brown to Dunaway who was fouled.
Dunaway would miss both free throws but Brown rebounded the last clanker and was fouled with 35 seconds left. He hit both free throws for a 52-49 spread.
After a Sitka time-out the Wolves pushed the ball but turned it over on a baseline drive.
Brown was fouled and hit both shots for a 54-49 lead with 24 seconds left. He had scored 14 of his game-high 25 points in the stanza, including four key free throws in a row.
Sitka missed their next shot and Adams was fouled on his rebound and made the last free throw with 15 seconds remaining for the final 55-49 margin.
“It’s all about building confidence for this team,” Brown said. “We had some injuries on the varsity so the kids we were bringing up this means a lot for them. It shows what they can do. But we’re going to be leaving soon to play three more hard games so this is a confidence builder for them, for us all. Free throws are really important, if I would have made just two more in the second half we would have been up by more and had less pressure on us, but playing Sitka is fun. I always like coming over here to play on this court. It’s a lot lighter than our court. I like coming here and competing, just the atmosphere here with this game and the fans, it’s just a nice moment to be in.”
Dunaway added 10 points for Mt. Edgecumbe, Dock 6, Myers, Alstrom-Beans and Adams 4 each, and Johns 2.
The Braves were 11-25 from the charity stripe, the Wolves 8-9.
Morrison led Sitka with 12 points, Taccad and Flores 10 apiece, Simic 6, Dumag 5, Arce 4, and Demmert 2.
“We started to understand,” Young said. “I give Emmett credit. He saw the lob pass. He saw a screen and set up a nice three for Jeff. He was seeing those things. I told the guys, OK if Emmett is seeing things in the game we have to be better about seeing the game, we can’t just play the game, we have to see what’s going on and get a feel. Our guards did a better job this game. They weren’t just hugging their guy, they started to get into position better and that created some of the turnovers, just being in better position. I think this is going to be a good weekend coming up for us, we will be playing all classifications. I think this is going to be a good weekend for the guys to get confidence and more comfortable on the floor, and just try to kind of progress. The big thing now is no steps backwards, just try to keep pushing forward.”
Sitka coach Hirai said the weekend games will help the Wolves prepare for the rest of the season.
“One game at a time,” he said. “Learn and move forward. We played good team basketball for 26 minutes, we need to figure out how to play 32 in this rivalry.”
Young said he liked the rivalry and the packed gym, that it reminded him of growing up as a Wrangell Wolves guard and the Southeast games every weekend.
“I wish there were more teams to play,” he said. “I like that this spirit is here. The crowds the last few years have started to pick up. Growing up in Wrangell you had both crowds at and in the games, and it makes it more fun. Having these crowds adds to the atmosphere. From a fan’s standpoint tonight was a very fun atmosphere. Both crowds screamed and yelled from the end of the JV game all the way through our game. It just makes it a more fun atmosphere.”
The Mt. Edgecumbe Braves (4-8) and Sitka Wolves (4-11), along with the varsity Lady Braves (5-8) and Lady Wolves (7-9), will be playing this weekend at the Kotzebue Invitational and Homer Invitational tournaments, respectively, starting Thursday.
Aside from at least four more games between the two town rivals, the Braves and Wolves will meet sooner than expected.
“We’re going to see them at six in the morning,” Young said. “They’re on the same plane as us.”
JV GAME:
Sitka 57 (14-18-9-16), R. Bartlett 12, J. Roy 12, M. Saline 9, J. Harris 7, C. Pearson 7, W. Urias 6, S. Webb 4. FT 15-21.
MEHS 54 (5-14-14-21 54), F. Myers 26, G. Bourdukofsky 13, C. Phillips 5, K. Johns 4, C. Smith 3, V. Bourdukofsky 2, L. Kashatok 1. FT 6-11.
C TEAM GAME:
Sitka 33 (3-7-7-15), N. Calhoun 8, E. Barragan 7, R. Hiem 6, T. Carley 4, S. Schmidt 3, W. Urias 3, S. Harmon 2. FT 6-8.
MEHS 28 (10-4-4-10), M. Cherls 12, D. Small 5, B. Westlack 3, K. Gibbens 3, B. Johnson 3, C. Merculief 2. FT 2-3.
