If either Glacier Bear basketball team is going to earn a berth at this year’s 2A state tournament, they’ll have to do it the hard way, as each team suffered defeats in the first round of the Region V tournament. Both the champion and the runner-up qualify for the state tournament. The champion is the team that goes undefeated and the runner-up is the team that loses only one game.
The Haines and Wrangell boys have played one another close this year, splitting their four games so far. On Wednesday night, it was not close. The Wolves outscored the Glacier Bears 24-2 in the second quarter to open up a 35-9 lead. Haines made only three of their 25 field goal attempts in the half.
In the second half, Haines managed to get some shots to fall, but Wrangell continued to enjoy an unusually hot night of shooting.
With two minutes remaining, Dylan Swinton attempted to draw a charge underneath the hoop and went to the floor hard. He was slow to get up and had to leave the game. He led Haines scorers with 23 points.
The final score was Wrangell 68, Haines 48.
Now, in order to qualify for state, the Glacier Bears will have to win three straight games in three straight days, starting Thursday morning against the Craig Panthers. The tournament concludes on Saturday morning with the runner-up games.
The Glacier Bears girls showed up at the Ketchikan gymnasium for the Region V basketball tournament as the fifth seed after a winless regular season. In a game dominated by defense, they took a 12-6 halftime lead. Brittney Bradford had a pair of three-pointers as well as seven first half rebounds; however, she picked up her fourth foul only 40 seconds into the third quarter and spent the rest of the quarter on the bench.
Midway through the third, Petersburg took the lead, 13-12 on a Katie Brock three-pointer. With one of their main scoring threats on the bench, Haines looked to get the ball to Makayla Crager in the low post. Crager had six fourth quarter points and finished with 11. Bradford re-entered the game and drained another three. She finished with nine points. With 1:40 to play, Crager hit a free throw to draw her team to within three, 26-23.
Haines did not manage to recapture the lead. With 1:19 left, Bradford picked up her fifth foul. Petersburg went on to win the game 33-23.
The loss puts Haines in the lower bracket of the double elimination tournament, with a shot at getting to state as the runner-up in the tournament. While Petersburg goes on to face top-seeded Metlakatla, the Glacier Bears await the loser of the Craig-Wrangell game, for a Thursday morning matchup.