In the final regular season games for Haines last weekend, the high school basketball teams traveled to Craig to compete.
In the first game Thursday, the Glacier Bear girls benefitted from Craig turnovers early.
In the first quarter, Haines grabbed six outright steals and the Craig Panthers threw it away another seven times. At the end of the first quarter, Haines maintained a 15-12 lead.
But Craig was like a car just warming up in the winter.
One player, Sara Steffen, started rolling and couldn’t be stopped. She was like a person with an excavator at a job site where everyone else had hand shovels. A tower with arms. She caught numerous offensive rebounds and muscled the ball back up and in.
At halftime Craig was ahead, 29-22.
Haines’ shots clanked off the rim a bit too much and too many passes either weren’t caught or sailed overhead.
Final score Craig 57-43. Craig’s Steffen ended the game with 22 points.
In the first quarter of the Thursday boys’ game, the Glacier Bears looked like a tuned-up custom truck in the first quarter: James Stickler had 8 points and Colton Combs had 5, giving Haines a lead at the end of the first quarter, 13-5.
Then, Craig seemed to quit hitting the snooze button and woke up. A Craig player nearly lost his balance while handling the ball at a sprint near the top of the key, stumbled without traveling somehow into the lane, and converted a basket with two Haines defenders in front of him who were probably as stunned as everyone else who saw it.
It seemed to change the flow of the game. Craig went from denominator to numerator. The score at halftime was Haines 23-Craig 21.
Haines played tough against a hot team, and at the end of the third, Haines led 42-39.
The fourth quarter was classic competitive basketball. What that means is: who avoids turnovers, who can shoot, who can drive to the basket strong and finish, who can get a steal, who knows how to play defense without fouling, use position, who practices best, who trains. In close games, that is the stuff that determines wins. It’s a blast to see who has it. It’s why we love the game.
This fourth quarter, Haines held a slight lead and looked to be the better team.
But Craig refused to go away.
Haines’ Combs made a free throw with 16 seconds to go to put Haines up by 2 points.
Craig brought the ball down and seemed to be puttering out, nearly losing the ball.
With five seconds to go, there was a loose ball scramble on the right side.
A Craig player secured the ball and passed it to his teammate, Adam Vickers, behind the three-point line. He hadn’t scored the entire game. Two seconds, one second, he aimed and fired a line-drive shot that clanked off the back rim, the front rim, the back rim again, the front rim again and went down and in. But there is no room for description on the scoreboard. Craig won by one, 55-54.
The Craig fans loved it. I saw Adam getting lots of hugs immediately after the game.
Haines fans could only turn away, it was like watching a car crash.
During the Friday game, the Lady Bears stopped Steffen from dominating and held her to 15 points for the game.
Leading Haines, Ari’el Godinez-Long scored 18 points. The game was tied 25-25 at the half.
Unfortunately, the Haines team couldn’t score for the first seven minutes of the start of the second half and fell behind by double digits.
Three-point shots by Haines’ Emma Dorhn and Ashlyn Ganey at the end of the third quarter helped them recover. They ended the third quarter down 37-31.
In the fourth quarter, Haines showed tenacity, pulling within one point with 19 seconds to go.
Godinez-Long got a rebound under the basket but stepped on the end line. Then, on Craig’s inbound pass, the ball bounced off the player who was intended to catch it. The Craig player who threw it in, dove on the ball, then Ganey dove on her, drawing a foul.
Craig made one free throw. Down by two points, Haines got the ball with 12 seconds to go. They couldn’t get a shot off however, stymied by Craig’s good defense. Final score Craig 46-44.
Craig Panther girls finished the regular season 16-5 overall, 5-3 in conference play, second place in the conference. Haines Glacier Bear girls finished the regular season 6-9, 4-4 in conference play, putting them in third place.
During the boys’ game on Friday, Haines’ Kyren Sweet, who plays hard while looking smooth, scored 10 points in the second quarter. He helped Haines to a 38-33 halftime lead. He had 16 points for the game and made himself a factor.
The game was a battle and each side had moments of brilliant effort.
With 25 seconds to go, the score tied 60-60, a Craig player dribbled into a trap, near the half-court line and let the ball get down by his knees. Combs relieved him of the ball. This is what I think is a good, underutilized play: Just take it (the ball) from them.
Haines missed a final shot and the game went to overtime.
Haines was up to the task this night.
Phoenix Swaner got a steal about halfway into the overtime and used his speed for an easy layup.
With 45 seconds to go in overtime, Haines ahead by 2 points, Swaner again excelled, using his hustle and strength to pull down a long rebound off a Craig shot. Swaner was fouled in the process, and made the free throws, thus beginning the last rights for Craig. James Stickler contributed with 16 points. Final score 71-64
Craig Panther boys finished the regular season 11-9 overall, 3-5 in the conference, putting them in fourth place.
Haines Glacier Bear boys finished the regular season 4-9 overall, 3-5 in the conference, putting them in third.
The final test of the high school basketball year is the state of Alaska tournament. It begins with regionals for the Haines teams, March 5-8 in Ketchikan. The girls play Craig beginning at 5:30 p.m. on March 5, boys play Wrangell at 7:15 p.m. on the same day.
Joe Parnell has lived a life that could have been a Wide World of Sports episode. He was a four-year letterman in tennis in high school, walked on as a football quarterback for Vanderbilt and Ohio universities and made the teams and practiced a lot. He was on the ski team at the University of Alaska Southeast. He surfed the north shore of Hawaii for a year, he worked out with a semi-pro Australian rules football team for a season. He got his 10,000 hours on fields, courts, and rec centers playing basketball, soccer, racquetball, tennis, dodgeball, golf, etc. He has won three gold medals at the famous Gold Medal Basketball Tournament in Juneau and won gold medals in pickleball at the Alaska Senior Games in Fairbanks this past summer. He lives for a good match.