Mike Cronk walked into the school gym in Tok on Friday just in time to catch the end of the game that put an end to his state record for points scored in a single basketball game.
In a game against Whitehorse's F.H. Collins, Tok senior Skylar Webb piled up 74 points to top Cronk's 62 scored back in 1986 for nearby Northway.
The buzz that filled the gym that night quickly spread through the school and across town -- not that it had far to spread. There are 204 students, including 13 seniors, in the K-12 school and about 1,500 people in the entire town.
The buzz came with a little extra volume because Cronk, 37, has been teaching middle school at Tok for 14 years. The home of the Wolverines is also the home of Alaska's biggest scorers, past and present.
Tok's athletic director and assistant girls basketball coach, Tawnia Cronk -- who also happens to be Mike's wife -- said Webb's big game "was the talk of the town for sure."
The town -- known as the "Gateway to Alaska" -- is the first major town on the Alaska Highway upon entering Alaska from the Canadian border. The average temperature there in the heart of winter is minus 32.
The night of Webb's feat found Tok in the balmy low 20s -- and it was way hotter inside the gym, where Webb was on fire in his team's 83-82 overtime loss to the Whitehorse team.
"They were so excited about his points," said Tawnia Cronk. "Nobody even talked about the loss."
Nobody except Webb.
"I'd rather win than make a record," said Webb, who wasn't aware of his achievement until friends swarmed him after checking at the scorers' table for the final tally.
"But it's pretty sweet. I didn't think I scored that much," he said.
In the stands were Webb's grandmother, mother, father and several aunts and uncles.
On the bench was Webb's uncle and coach, Neil Charlie.
Sitting right behind the Webb family was Mike Cronk, who after the game congratulated his record-breaker, no doubt with an audience watching.
"I told him I was more proud of how he handled himself than of all the points he got," said Cronk. "He didn't get flustered."
To the contrary, as the pressure mounted, Webb seemed to improve.
After picking up his fourth foul before the end of the third quarter, Charlie pulled Webb for five minutes, then put him back in with 1:30 left in the quarter. With the game close, he didn't let the foul trouble slow him down.
Webb missed a last-chance shot, sending the game to overtime, then used the extra time to score 15 more points.
On a night when Webb scored 24 field goals, including four 3-pointers, and sank 22 of 24 free throws, it was the shot he missed at the end of regulation that earned him the scoring record. At the end of regulation, Webb had 59 points -- three shy of Cronk's record. By missing and sending the game into overtime, he got a chance to keep filling up the net.
Webb is one of only six players on the Tok roster -- the same number on the Northway team when Cronk set the old record back in 1986.
During his senior year, Cronk averaged 37 points and 23 rebounds per game and was named Alaska Player of the Year for 1986-87, after which he attended UAF on a full basketball scholarship. In 2006 he was inducted into the Alaska High School Hall of Fame.
Webb so far has topped Cronk's average this season with 38 points per game -- a number made even more impressive when you consider Webb didn't play his junior year.
The comparisons are certainly far from over for the two Tok sharpshooters, who pass each other daily in the halls of the school.
"He still has a big smile on his face," said Cronk, who has been asked more than once since Friday if he'll take on Skylar one-on-one.
"I'm almost 40 and he's 18," he said, "but I can see it happening."
Contact Heather March at hmarch@adn.com.
By HEATHER MARCH
hmarch@adn.com