Haines High School’s varsity basketball teams went 0-4 on a trip to Metlakatla last weekend.
The Glacier Bear boys fell by scores of 84-44 and 69-32, and the girls lost by 50-38 and 41-27 margins.
“It’s a tough place to play, and we’ve got to learn to play in tough situations,” said girls’ coach Greg Brittenham.
Senior Trevor Cox was the lone Haines boy scoring in double figures both nights, with 15 and 12 points, respectively.
“Metlakatla is returning, basically, their whole team from last year, and they won regionals,” said boys’ coach Steve Fossman. “They’re big and don’t need a lot of space to shoot.”
Friday scoring included sophomore Dylan Swinton, 8; senior Matthew Green, 6; sophomore Marty Fowler, 5; junior Dylan Palmieri and sophomore Hudson Sage, 4; and junior Jacob Stigen, 2.
Stigen’s 7 points were second on the team Saturday, and no other Glacier Bear scored more than 3 points. Fossman, though, said the team had more success on offense that second night. “We pushed the ball and really got Trevor out on the fast break.”
The girls stayed close with Metlakatla through halftime each night. The hosts went on to outscore the Glacier Bears by 9 points in the third quarter of game one, and a dozen points in the fourth quarter of game two.
Senior Kayley Swinton scored 15 points on Friday, followed by senior Destinee Cowart, 10; senior Autumn Gross, 7; sophomore Tulsi Zahnow, 4; and sophomore Makayla Crager, 2.
Metlakatla played fierce defense on Saturday, keeping all the Glacier Bears in single digits. Swinton tallied 7 points, Zahnow, 6; Crager, Gross and sophomore Brittney Bradford, 4; and Cowart, 2.
Coach Brittenham said Haines needed to be more physical against Metlakatla, which had a big rebounding edge. “When we shoot, we’re going to get hit, but we can’t let it affect our shot.”
He said another big factor was Metlakatla holding the Glacier Bears to only 25 shots in the second game, down from 48 attempts the previous night. “They clamped down on us.”
Both teams are at home this week against Petersburg, with games Thursday and Friday nights due to the ferry schedule.