Klukwan Chilkats take master’s bracket

At some point in his life, some time before tip-off Saturday, Andrew Friske forgot how to miss a shot. For four quarters in the Gold Medal masters’ bracket championship, the memory never came back. 

It was shooting, shooting, and more shooting from Klukwan’s lineup of Gold Medal hall-of-famers, who didn’t see a close game all tournament. Friske, a Haines High alum,  spent the game hardly touching the rim with his shots. Alongside him, 2026 Hall of Fame inductee Dave Buss shot well, as did Stuart DeWitt and Jason Shull.

The game started with Klukwan’s Jordan Baumgartner winning the tip-off, a somewhat rare occurrence for a team’s point guard to be taking a job usually reserved for the tallest player. It was a sign of things to come, with Klukwan’s perimeter players playing at a different speed than their Sitka counterparts. 

In the first quarter, Sitka was hardly able to get a foothold on the Klukwan side of the floor. Michael Ganey in particular swiped a series of steals, as did Baumgartner and Friske. 

That trio was everywhere, crashing the boards from the perimeter and even taking matchups down low. Sitka made an effort to work the ball inside to their big men, but the Klukwan perimeter players, giving up plenty of size, swatted a number of low-post attempts. 

Outside those three, Klukwan sent in wave after wave of crafty players, who had all played together before on Gold Medal teams. Hall of Famers Shull and Jesse McGraw checked into the game and helped dictate the flow of the offense. McGraw in particular gave Klukwan an inside presence who was comfortable stepping outside to distribute the ball and shoot. McGraw’s passing was a boon for Haines’ athletic perimeter scorers. 

After all, the Friske backdoor cut is something McGraw said he’s been looking for since they were in high school. 

“Stuart and Andrew were juniors when I was a senior in high school,” McGraw said after the game. “That’s when I started playing with them and it’s still the same. They do the same moves on the court; I know where to find them. Stuart’s the spot-up shooter, Andrew is the back-cutter.”

By the end of the third quarter, Klukwan had all but wrapped up the game with a 62-37 lead.

Klukwan closed out their scoring with a Jeffrey Klanott three, winning 74-52.

Coach Dan Hotch said the team’s run through the tournament came from their shooting, but also the shared experience. “This is the love of the game,” Hotch said. “I coached 22 years of high school basketball in Oregon, but it all started right here.” 

Friske led the scoring with 25 points, Ganey contributed 12, Baumgartner 8, Shull 8, Buss 8, DeWitt 7, McGraw 3, and Klanott 3. 

For Sitka, Derek James scored 14 points, Jimmie Jensen 10, Jeremy Plank 10, Efren Arce 5, Cliff Ritcher 4, Thomas Anderson 4, Steve Edenshaw 3, and Justin Bagley 2.

Ganey and DeWitt were named to the master’s bracket All-Tournament Team alongside Friske, the master’s bracket most valuable player. 

Deishu Merchants take B bracket

“Bigger, better, more athletic,” was how Haines Merchants coach Steve Fossman described the Angoon team across from him Saturday night in Juneau. 

To that point, no one had been able to make anything stick on the Merchants, Haines’ B Bracket team. But being undefeated was a challenge unto itself, said Gold Medal hall of famer and master’s bracket MVP Andrew Friske. By Friske’s estimation, in the tournament’s history the one-loss team in the championship game had beaten the undefeated team roughly 70% of the time. 

From the tip, Friske’s warning looked prophetic. For the first time all tournament, Haines struggled with ball pressure and couldn’t free-up its playmakers. 

The packed, mostly pro-Angoon gym didn’t give Haines’ slow start much grace, and neither did Angoon’s Clayton Edwin. Edwin kicked off scoring with a clean three-pointer, and then a four-point play the next trip down the court after being fouled. A third Edwin three, this time tossed up as he was falling over, had the crowd in rapture with hardly five minutes gone. That gave Angoon an 18-7 lead.

When Edwin finally spent a possession not making a three, Angoon’s Kendrick Payton was the first player at the tournament to make Haines’ Tyler Swinton look small, scoring an early bucket easily on the block. 

Amid the Angoon run, Haines matched Angoon’s physicality and avoided turning the ball over. That left Haines in a position to make a run of their own when Angoon’s hot shooting cooled. In the closing minutes of the quarter, a flurry of three-pointers from veterans Swinton and Kyle Fossman brought Haines back to just a one-point deficit. 

From there on out, it was three quarters of both teams trading blows and the lead. 

The second quarter featured more impressive shotmaking from Edwin. Even so, it was Angoon’s star point guard Aquino Brinson who remained the tempo-setter of the offense. Brinson was cool under on-ball pressure from Haines’ backcourt that had been effective all tournament. Brinson was frequently able to probe in, get a bigger defender switched on to him, pull the ball back out, and then make a play. 

Brinson and Edwin’s combined efforts, plus inside scoring from Tajuan Jamestown, gave Angoon a five-point lead at the end of the half. 

In the second half, Haines got the same reliable minutes from top contributors it had all tournament. Angoon split defensive duties on Swinton between the bigger Payton and the far smaller Jonathan Jack-Nixon. Swinton handled the diverse looks well, able to alternate scoring inside and outside depending on the matchup. 

Fossman continued his steady outside shooting and playmaker role, finding the ball anytime the offense was unsettled. Often, he would bide his time down low, letting the younger guards handle the ball, before popping out and spraying the ball to an open shooter. 

Helping keep the Merchants in the game were big moments from smaller-minutes players, like James Hart who hit a corner three to end a brief Haines scoring drought, and Chevy Fowler who stood in for a charge on Brinson. 

Steve Fossman specifically cited the contributions of Ryan Olsen, who in particular contributed tough rebounding. “Always in the right place,” Fossman said of Olsen. 

As is Gold Medal custom, it was largely laissez-faire refereeing. Generally, if you were going up at the rim you could expect to go down, hard. At one point, tensions sparked with Jack-Nixon getting tangled up with Combs, Haines’ smallest player, and then Fossman getting nose to nose with Jack-Nixon to defend his younger teammate. A tough bucket from Fossman resulted in a steady stream of jawing back down the court. 

It was a credit to both teams that even with jawing and a raucous crowd, offense remained clean and organized. It was fitting that the third quarter ended tied, 43-43. 

For the fourth, it was in the sure hands of Brinson that Angoon placed most of its trust. His secure ballhandling and cool demeanor was a match for the moment, and he was able to draw fouls and score at the line. 

The score remained knotted, with multiple ties and lead changes, neither team able to separate. 

For nearly the whole quarter, Haines ran a lineup that included its youngest players, high-school senior Colton Combs and recent Mt. Edgecumbe grad Jake Friske. Both continued to seek out the ball, taking risks while avoiding turnovers. 

Friske had debuted on the team last year, but played a smaller role off-ball. Then he broke his foot mid-tournament. 

This year, he was tasked with more primary ballhandling duties. Earlier in the tournament, with the ball in his hands, his instincts from playing college intramural ball kicked in, he said. That had earned him an earful in the huddle from the older guys. 

“I started kind of doing whatever, and when we got into the huddle they were yelling at me, telling me to slow it down,” Friske said.

“Kyle (Fossman) pulled me aside at the end of the game and told me he’d start trusting me more. And I understood my role on this team was to take care of the ball and play good defense.” 

Both he and Combs did just that, seemingly constantly on the floor diving for loose balls. 

Friske had another role to play as the game wound down. After a clutch bucket from Tompkins, Angoon had the ball down two with 25 seconds left. For maybe the first time, Brinson made an error: Haines’ perimeter pressure prevented him from getting into the paint, and then he turned the ball over. 

After losing possession, Angoon was left in a position of having to foul to stop the clock.

That sent Friske to the line, two different times, to ice the game. 

When asked about the pressure of the moment, Friske said he’d seen it before, he said afterward. “I was actually fine there,” he said afterward. “It wasn’t that loud, honestly. We won in overtime in Barrow my senior year and it was way louder there.”

Friske sank four straight free-throws to give Haines their winning margin of victory, 57-51. 

It’s Haines’ fourth Gold Medal B Bracket title. Between young blood like Friske and Combs, former big-name Southeast high-school stars Fossman and Tompkins, old Haines High contributors like Kyle Rush, Hart, Olsen, and Fowler. 

“I knew all these guys were good because I’ve played against all of them,” said Tompkins, the newcomer. “It’s nice to play with them. We’ll be back next year.” 

For Haines, scoring leaders were Swinton with 23, Fossman 13, Friske 9, Tompkins 7, Hart 3, and Combs 2. 

For Angoon, Edwin led with 24, Brinson 12, Tajuan Jamestown 9, and Payton 6. 

Swinton and Tompkins made the all-tournament team alongside tournament MVP Kyle Fossman. 

Editor’s Note: This story has been edited for grammar and punctuation.