Following a late-season surge, the Haines High School boys’ basketball team went 0-2 at the Class 2A state basketball tournament in Anchorage this week, but the Glacier Bears clearly showed they belonged.
Coach Steve Fossman said his team faced “a tough draw” in the eight-team field. Despite 8 a.m. game times, the Glacier Bears showed up prepared to play, he said.
“They seemed pretty good and relaxed to me,” Fossman said. “As a team, they played well and fought hard.”
The Glacier Bears opened the tournament on Monday, falling to Glennallen, the top-seeded Interior team, 61-44. Glennallen went on to win the championship game against Dillingham late Wednesday, 59-39.
Senior Devin Light scored 15 points; senior Justin Swinton, 11; senior Kai Sato-Franks, 7; senior Isaac Wing, 4; junior Keegan Sundberg, 3; and seniors Chevy Fowler and Chris Turner, 2.
Haines took a narrow lead into the fourth quarter against Unalakleet the next morning in the consolation bracket, but that margin slipped away in the final minutes of a 61-55 loss. Light tallied 19 points; Swinton, 17; Sato-Franks, 8; Sundberg, 4; senior James Morgan, 3; and Fowler and Wing, 2
“We were in a position that we had a chance to win,” Fossman said. “That’s a quiet goal I have, to have a shot at it and be competitive.”
Metlakatla, the top-seeded Southeast team, took third place after losing to Dillingham.