With just five players on the roster, the Kings had to play with only four for almost the entire second half against Kiana -- the defending Class 1A champions -- and lost 50-17.
Players are hard to come by in Port Lions, a town of about 200 on Kodiak Island. The K-12 school has only 32 students, and the five players on the girls basketball team account for more than half of the high school's enrollment of eight.
"It's pretty much, if you're there, you play," said Port Lions school secretary Lisa Robustellini, mother of post Cierra Robustellini, who led the Kings against Kiana with 11 points.
And if you're a boy in Port Lions and you want to play basketball, you do what senior Chad Maughan did -- you join the girls during practice, and you become a sort of basketball mercenary on game days.
Maughan, who didn't want to miss his senior season, joined the team in Old Harbor, about a 25-minute plane ride to the southeast part of Kodiak Island.
On game days, the Kodiak Island Borough School District paid for Maughan to fly to Old Harbor's home and away games.
"I wanted to be playing, and didn't care for who," said Maughan, who admitted feeling a little like a celebrity, being flown here and there.
To keep Maughan up to speed during a season that ended at the regional tournament, the Old Harbor coach faxed plays and game plans to the Port Lions school office, where girls coach Dana Strong would help Maughan decipher them.
It's not the first time the two have gone over homework together.
Strong is one of two high school teachers at the school, and instructs Maughan, and all his players in the classroom as well as on the court.
For three of the players -- Madison, Marquee and Katie -- he serves as teacher, coach and dad.
"Sometimes (my daughters) really don't want to listen and we butt heads," said the coach.
Counting his son and assistant coach, Zack, five Strongs are on the roster for the Kings.
The team's trip to state -- its first since 1992 -- was the cause of much celebration in the Kodiak Island village.
At the beginning of the season, Strong promised he would shave his head if the girls made it to the state tournament -- a vow that came to fruition at a village-wide pep rally in the school gym as each player took a turn with the shears.
The town pulled together a relatively hefty Sullivan Arena crowd of about 20 people -- 10 percent of the population -- including at least one parent per player who cheered on the Kings in what started as a close game.
It wasn't until after Katie Strong went down with her injury that Kiana started pouring in baskets.
Port Lions trailed 11-6 at the beginning of the third quarter when Strong, the point guard who seemed to have jets on her heels, tripped as she hustled for a ball.
After taking the bench with what's believed to be a sprained ankle, she watched her teammates get outscored 39-11 in the second half.
Even with its five-player roster, getting trampled isn't something the Kings are used to, going 16-4 in the regular season and capturing the Aleutian Chain Conference championship.
They are used to finishing games short-handed, though.
And today, for a consolation-round game against Huslia, they will learn what it's like to start a game short-handed.
Katie Strong will most likely have to hobble onto the court in order for Port Lions to abide by a rule that says a team must have five players on the court at the start of the game. After a possession or two, she will join Maughan and her dad on the bench.
And even with four on the floor, history indicates the quartet may stand a chance.
In the 1986 tournament, the Koliganek girls won the 1A state championship with just three players on the floor.
Cierra Robustellini isn't giving up ahead of time.
"After all," she quipped, "we have a very Strong team."
Daily News reporter Heather March can be reached at hmarch@adn.com.
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