By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
In their third matchup of the season, the Mt. Edgecumbe Braves earned another win over the Sitka High Wolves basketball team, Tuesday night at Sitka High.
While the competition remained neck-and-neck for the first three quarters, the Braves’ gameplay accelerated into a crescendo to secure a victory in the fourth.
At the half, Edgecumbe led 19-13. As the teams fought their way through the third, neither side managed to make a dent in the other, and for a brief period the Wolves struck back and narrowed Edgecumbe’s lead. As the final quarter began, the Wolves were still down only by 6.
Edgecumbe sophomore Jacob Friske, of Sitka, remembered the deadlock.
“In the third, they kept with us, we kept with them, no changes really. Then in the fourth… we all rallied together, had some clutch shots, had some good steals. We limited turnovers and we broke the press well,” Friske said.
In the last eight minutes of the game, the Braves scored 12 points and stretched their lead by an insurmountable margin. Sitka scored 1 point in the fourth. With their final surge of energy, Edgecumbe won 44-27.
The rapid buildup of momentum was apparent to MEHS junior Mason Ivanoff, of Unalakleet.
“What’s changed is the environment we have as a team,” Ivanoff said after the win. “It changed when we started getting the momentum and we started building up on each other. That was my first time playing with Ranen (Wassillie) all season. Him and me really click, and it just really got going.”
Tuesday marked Wassillie’s first time back on the court this season. He scored 9 points, exceeded only by his teammate, Denin Prentice, who led the Braves’ scoreboard with 11 points. Ivanoff netted 8.
In the third quarter, a trio of back-to-back 3 point shots by Sitka’s Wes Urias, Nik Calhoun and Shane Web briefly shifted the tempo of the game. For a moment in the third, the Braves led by a single point, but the Wolves were unable to carry that momentum forward.
In the fourth, Braves coach Archie Young said, his team stepped up their game.
“(Sitka) hit three straight threes; they didn’t hit those shots in the fourth quarter. I think we executed better in the fourth quarter. We rebounded better in the fourth quarter,” Young said.
Ivanoff said his team kept improving as the game wore on.
“We just kept building up on each other. We never seemed to fall,” Ivanoff said.
Friske highlighted how the dynamic between the Braves and the Wolves has shifted through the season.
“First game we lost by like 10 to them, second game we went into overtime and we won by like 7, this game we beat them by almost 20… It’s finally coming together, I think and we’re getting better. This is what we expected,” Friske said.
Looking forward, Ivanoff hopes his team improves their cohesion.
“More confident, more calm on the court… We just need to work on being here together as a team and building up as a team and working hard,” the junior said.
Looking forward, Young wants his players to take better care of the ball.
“We have to learn how to cut turnovers… We have too many turnovers that lead to points and we need to learn how to be better about our passing and when to pass,” he said.
The coach praised his players’ energy.
“They just kept playing. I liked our energy together and I liked how they were engaged on the bench,” he said.
With just over a month left in the season, Young was eager for the chance to have his full squad back on the court.
“We’re slowly getting to add players back. Ranen Wassillie – it was his first game of the season tonight. We’re just slowly getting our pieces together… Hopefully by regionals we’ll have everybody healthy and on the floor,” he said.
For Sitka senior Shane Webb, a key part of Tuesday’s game was the need to enter the second half with high energy.
“Early in the season, a really bad habit of ours was coming out flat after halftime, and so our first priority, really focus starting at halftime (was to) make sure we have the most energy in the whole game,” Webb said.
Against a hard-hitting team such as the Braves, Webb highlighted the need to put up an active defense.
“It’s hard not to get carried away, because there’s still a whole quarter and a half left,” Webb said. “But the second we make a three, or any shot at all, I don’t know about our team, but I’m just thinking get down the floor as fast as possible, because they’re going to come right back at us… We can score all we want, but if we can’t hold them, it’s not going to matter. So definitely the first thing that comes to my mind is just trying to hold them back on defense. They push the floor really hard.”
While the Wolves put up stiff resistance in the first three quarters, Webb noted that his team struggles to play through the entire game.
“We’re still trying to get back in the groove of staying focused for the whole 32 minutes. Not just one good half or one good quarter,” he said.
Wolves junior Angelo Elefante cited his team’s turnovers as one reason Sitka fell behind.
Sitka’s Angelo Elefante takes a shot against Mt. Edgecumbe as Braves’ sopho-more Jake Friske defends, Tuesday at Sitka High. The Braves won the game. Both teams play Eielson High this week. (Sentinel photo by James Poulson)
“We looked at the score too much and we just kept pushing things and we forced a lot of turnovers, forced a lot of passes that didn’t need to be made. Our shots were just not falling in that game,” Elefante said.
In future games, he’d like his team to keep their calm even as things aren’t going well.
“Definitely our mindset, we get too frustrated too fast… Next time we just keep a cool mind,” he said.
Part of the loss boiled down to a lack of confidence on the court, said Sitka coach Jarrett Hirai.
“We lost our confidence and we had a couple issues on defense and momentum shifted,” Hirai said. “We could never get back into that mentality. I really wanted them to cut that lead in the third quarter… There was momentum, and there was another three (pointer) we gave up and another layup we gave up and we lost momentum at the end of the third. Coming in at the beginning of the fourth we were playing catchup, and we really struggled with finding our confidence when we needed it the most. We need to be able to execute on both sides of the floor in critical times, and we really struggled with that.”
Despite the loss, Webb was happy that the Wolves cut down on the number of offensive rebounds Edgecumbe caught.
“We definitely made them actually have to run a set instead of just getting offensive boards the whole game. So I’m really proud of that. We held them to a lot less offensive rebounds,” Webb said.
When the Wolves pull together and act in unison, Hirai said, the team finds ways to crack through Edgecumbe’s defense.
“When we are in sync with each other offensively, we find opportunities,” Hirai said.
Elefante said the Wolves have improved their communication on the court.
“We were communicating a lot better than usual. We were executing our plays a lot more,” he said.
Prior to the varsity game, Sitka’s junior varsity team beat Edgecumbe 50-33 and the Braves C team won 55-49.
The Braves and Lady Braves face Eielson High today and Thursday at MEHS. Friday and Saturday, Sitka’s boys and girls play Eielson.
