Haines boys’ and girls’ basketball teams dropped games to visiting Metlakatla last weekend.
The boys’ losses, 56-49 and 80-45, bring the team’s record to 2-17. The girls lost 54-19 and 57-32, bringing their record to 2-12.
Last week was the season’s halfway point.
Each team is relatively young and faces an uphill task to pull off an upset at the upcoming Southeast regional tournament to advance to state competition.
The girls have dramatically improved their skills and understanding of the game. They’re routinely making the extra pass to find an open teammate for a good shot. They’re noticing when a teammate has a hot-hand and to feed that player the ball. They also seem to genuinely support each other.
But they still make too many unforced errors that result in flurries of turnovers. And, they don’t consistently push back when opponents push them, leaving them disadvantaged in otherwise close games.
Coach Greg Brittenham said Haines played solid defense in the second half of Saturday’s final game. “We came out and pressured them. We had hands in their faces, and for a time, we made them hesitant with the ball.”
The trick is to get the team to play with intensity and aggressiveness for an entire game.
As the girls prepare for regionals, they should take heart from the fact that on any given day, when they consistently play hard and rely on each other, they can play with anyone.
For the boys’ team, the mystery of the season seems to be finding consistency. Friday’s game was possibly the squad’s best this season. The Glacier Bears held a lead against Metlakatla, one of the state’s top teams, most of the night but could not close out the game. The Chiefs chipped away at the lead, finally outlasting Haines to win by seven.
The next night, however, Haines played like a shell of its former self, getting handled by a resurgent Metlakatla. Coach Steve Fossman said he felt the disparity between the two games was a reflection of the young team’s growing pains.
“That second night, Metlakatla came out and pressed and they had a great shooting night, but our guys learned a lot that first night. We had success playing full- court defense and changing the tempo of the game. We also played our best offensive game against the zone defense, and that is great for our confidence,” Fossman said.
Relying heavily on point forward Dylan Swinton, the team has struggled all season to find a consistent inside-outside scoring threat, and they are still trying to overcome the steep learning curve that occurs when freshmen are called on to play large portions of the game.
That the team was able to stay so close against Metlakatla is testament to the squad’s great potential. The task now is to harness that potential and put together a string of games that could lead to an impressive run at regionals.
The boys will play this weekend at home against Wrangell. Games begin Friday and Saturday at 6:30 p.m. The girls will play in Wrangell.
In recent action, the boys and girls recently returned from games in southern Southeast against Craig and Petersburg.
The boys won their first league game by defeating Craig, 67-59. They lost their second game against the Panthers, 70-63, struggling to deal with Craig’s full-court pressure.
Swinton said he felt the strain. “It’s tiring getting double teamed or trying to get the ball up-court while you’re being full-court pressed and then trying to get the team into a motion, but I think I’m getting better at it.”
In Petersburg, Haines fell 72-32 and 69-45.
Haines’ girls lost their games on the road trip, struggling to deal with full-court pressure and giving up too many easy scoring opportunities to opponents.
The girls fell to Craig, 52-26 and 53-33. They also fell to Petersburg, 37-15 and 38-21.
“We weren’t prepared to handle the defensive pressure, and that’s on me,” Coach Brittenham said. “We will continue to work on simulating the pressure of a game situation as best we can because it’s not going to get any easier from here on out.”
For both teams, the regular season culminates with the Southeast regional tournament in Juneau, March 7-12.