By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
Although the Mt. Edgecumbe High Braves entered the state basketball championship tournament seeded eighth out of eight teams, the squad rebounded from a first-round loss to claim fourth place in Anchorage Friday.
Because the Braves went north as the lowest seed in the bracket, they first faced the top seeded 3A team in the state – the Houston Hawks. Edgecumbe fell 58-42.
Having lost to Houston several times in the season, including in the Eastern Conference 3A championship game, MEHS sophomore Kaison Hermann said his team was energized when they headed north.
Mt. Edgecumbe High School junior Ranen Wassillie (25) shoots a layup against Houston High School senior Braden Cork (0) on March 23, 2022 during a 58-42 Braves loss in round 1 of the state basketball champion-ships at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage. The Braves went on to take fourth place overall while Houston finished fifth despite their first round victory.
(Dustin Safranek/Ketchikan Daily News)
“We went in playing pretty good, having good teamwork, having a lot of energy going in as the eighth seed… Personally, just the thought of the team, we played them five times throughout the season, so we were playing them and we were all confident and thought we had a chance against them. We did pretty good,” Hermann told the newspaper. He’s from Koliganek.
For senior Daniel Buffas the tournament was a final chance to play basketball at the state level.
“Coming in as the eighth seed and placing fourth was pretty impressive, having the odds against us,” he said.
Playing against a team as strong as Houston, he added, was no easy feat.
“At first it’s kind of challenging mentally but as you play the game and the game progresses, it gets a little easier,” the senior from Nome said.
Though the initial loss knocked Edgecumbe into the consolation bracket, the Braves pulled together and scored a 53-41 win over Hutchison High the next day.
“That (win) made that first loss a little easier, for me personally,” Buffas recalled.
Moving through the bracket, the Braves faced a final challenge against the Barrow Whalers, Friday.
In a hard fought game that came down to the closing minutes, Edgecumbe secured a 63-60 victory and the fourth place spot.
With a large crowd in the stands the team played in a setting reminiscent of pre-pandemic days.
“It gave us a lot of energy and we were all on adrenaline and had a lot of people cheering for us. I’ve never had a crowd like that before,” Hermann said. As a sophomore, he hadn’t had a chance to play high school sports prior to the pandemic.
Both teams stayed competitive to the end, he added.
“Just the way we were both playing, we were competing with each other and making baskets on both sides of the court,” he said.
Buffas’ final high school basketball game left him feeling accomplished.
“They didn’t want to give it to us, we had to compete for it. It was definitely a hard game,” Buffas said. “I think it was the crowd giving emotional sparks, it made it a little harder to focus on winning the game… It feels great, it gives a sense of accomplishment.”
After graduation he would like to get a commercial driver’s license and move out of state, he said.
Overall in the tournament, the Nome-Beltz Nanooks upset the Houston Hawks in the semifinal match and went on to secure the state title by defeating the Grace Christian Grizzlies. In a twist of the bracket, Houston took fifth place overall in the tournament after a close loss to the Valdez Buccaneers in a consolation game.
