The Petersburg Viking basketball teams landed in Haines on Saturday afternoon and quickly took to the court. Due to a ferry cancellation, the games were moved from their traditional Friday and Saturday night slots to late Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Less than 24 hours after their arrival, the Vikings left with four victories.
“We knew Petersburg was going to be tough,” said Haines boys’ coach Steve Fossman. “Their boys are one of the top teams if not the top team in the state right now.”
The girls teams started out the action. After Petersburg jumped out to a 21-9 first-quarter lead, Haines maintained composure and narrowed the lead to 28-21 at the half. In the third quarter, the Vikings came out of the locker room and went on a 19-2 run, padding their lead to 47-23. In the final quarter, the Lady Bears were able to match their opponents basket for basket using crisp ball movement and continuing to play aggressive defense. Hailey Boron had a fine shooting performance, scoring 19 points on the strength of four three-pointers. Sadie Anderson was a force in the low post, finishing with 12 points and 14 rebounds.
The Petersburg boys came in shooting the lights out, hitting 64 percent of their shots, compared to 44 percent for the Haines boys. They steadily amassed a lead up to 23 points, and as the fourth quarter began, they were ahead 48-31.
Once again, the Glacier Bears reminded their fans that even when faced with double-digit deficits, they can never be counted out. Their full-court pressure went into lock-down mode, making it very difficult for the Vikings to inbound the ball or to get it across half-court. They shut down passing lanes, hounded the dribble and dove to the floor for loose balls. With three minutes remaining they narrowed Petersburg’s lead to 58-47. Veteran Petersburg coach Rick Brock turned to the crowd behind him and said, “This is gonna be a long three minutes.”
Meanwhile, Kirby Faverty was on