Four out of five Chilkat Valley teams were still alive at the Gold Medal Basketball Tournament as of press time Wednesday.
Both Haines squads – the men’s “B” team and the women’s team – remain in the winners’ bracket and already have knocked off defending champions in Juneau.
The men are 2-0, with wins over Kake and 2015 tournament winner Hydaburg. Kyle Fossman tallied 45 points in the 107-100 Hydaburg victory, and the team has gotten a boost from the addition of Ryan Harms, who competed at the “C” level for players age 32 and up last year.
The Merchants’ next game is 7:30 p.m. Thursday (March 24) against Angoon, with the winner advancing to the championship game and the loser playing 7:30 p.m. Friday for another shot to reach the Saturday title contest.
The Haines women topped last year’s champ Hoonah, 41-31, in a long-awaited return to Gold Medal on Tuesday. The Merchants are formidable in the paint, adding Jaime (Stanford) Bentley to the roster along with Alisa Beske and Sarah Elliott.
Haines advanced to a 2 p.m. Thursday match-up with Craig, again with the winner landing a spot in the title game. Hoonah went on to eliminate Kake on Wednesday night and will face the losing team in a 2 p.m. Friday game.
The Klukwan “C” team lost its opening game against Hoonah but rebounded for wins against Yakutat and Angoon. The Chilkats were missing Stuart DeWitt in their first game on Sunday and Andrew Friske in their second game on Tuesday, but had their full line-up for Wednesday’s win.
The team next plays 3:30 p.m. Friday in the losers’ bracket finale. The winner plays in the championship, and the loser is eliminated.
The Klukwan Masters team is 1-1 and plays 6 p.m. Friday, facing the same scenario as the “C” team coming out of the losers’ bracket. Dan Hotch drained nine 3-pointers for the Masters in their defeat of Yakutat.
The Klukwan “B” team exited the tournament with a 1-2 record, including a valiant losing effort Wednesday night against Hydaburg.
Complete team rosters can be viewed at kinyradio.com/pages/gold-medal.