While Edna Ahmaogak was busy earning a master's degree in education, a bunch of her former third-graders were busy mastering the game of basketball.
Now that they've been reunited, the Wainwright Huskies are back in the Class 1A girls state championship game.
Wainwright dominated Teller 64-29 Tuesday in a semifinal game to earn a spot in Wednesday's championship game at the Alaska Airlines Center. The Huskies will meet Buckland at 2 p.m. Wednesday.
Wainwright is in the title game for the first time since 2009, when the Huskies won it all. Ahmaogak was the team's coach that season, but she gave up the job the next year to begin a four-year online pursuit of her degree while continuing to teach third grade at the North Slope school.
"I took time off to get my master's degree, and I came back this year. I knew the girls had talent and discipline," Ahmaogak said.
Tops in the talent department Tuesday was junior Kai Nashookpuk. Nashookpuk poured in 25 points for Wainwright, often generating her own opportunities with steals.
In Tuesday's other semifinal, junior Rosaline Hadley scored the last six points of the game to lift Buckland to a 31-27 squeaker over Selawik. The victory puts the Sussauni in the championship game for the first time since 2005.
"Finally," Buckland coach Fred Lee. "Finally, after having many years of choking. Last year we missed 22 layups in the semis against a team we were supposed to beat.
"We came back strong this year."
Hadley said she worried she might bring her team more disappointment at the end of the game.
With 1:13 to go and Selawik leading 27-25, Hadley earned a trip to the foul line by drawing a shooting foul. She missed the first free throw but made the second one to trim Selawik's lead to one point.
At the 1:06 mark, Hadley was back at the line for two more shots. She made the first and missed the second to tie the game, 27-27.
"Pressure," Hadley said of her time at the foul line. "I wasn't sure if I was gonna make those."
With the game tied, junior Taylene Jones got her second straight steal and got the ball to Hadley, who sank a short jumper to break the tie with 44 seconds left. The Sussauni forced another turnover and again got the ball to Hadley, who drove the lane for the game's final points.
After the game, Jones had a bag of ice on her left wrist, which she injured when she went for the ball for the second of her two late-game steals.
Jones finished with four steals and three assists. Hadley had seven points and five rebounds, Sarah Washington contributed 11 rebounds and five points, and Kylah Melton scored 11 points.
Selawik was led by Justene Henry's 11 points and Jasmine Ticket's eight points and 13 rebounds. Henry's basket from inside gave Selawik its final lead, 27-25, with 2:07 left.
While Buckland's win wasn't assured until the final seconds, Wainwright took care of business early in its win over Teller, racing to a 10-1 lead in the first five minutes and limiting Teller to 12 points in the first half.
Nashookpuk stole the ball on three of Teller's last four possession of the first half. She converted each turnover into points to boost the Huskies to a 29-12 halftime lead. She took the ball coast-to-coast one time and passed to teammates the other two times -- and when they missed, Nashookpuk grabbed the rebounds and scored on putbacks.
"We do teamwork a lot," she said.
Nashookpuk comes by her talent naturally -- her older sister, Jo Jo, was the Class 1A player of the year in 2010. She shows good instincts, scores from all over the court, shares the ball and is aggressive on defense without being out of control.
"Kai is more fine-tuned," Ahmaogak said.
Jay-Jay Aguvluk knocked down four 3-pointers en route to 20 points for the Huskies, who scored eight times from behind the arc and a couple of more times just inside it.
Aguvluk drained two open 3-pointers and drove for another bucket to power Wainwright to an early 8-1 lead.
Teller never really recovered. The Aklaqs -- Inupuit for Bears -- came with five points, 10-5, but Nashookpuk got off a contested 15-footer at the buzzer to give Wainwright a 12-5 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Late in the second quarter, a pair of free throws by Teller's Kaitlin Topkok cut the lead to 19-10, but the Huskies finished the half on a 10-2 run fueled by Nashookpuk's three steals.
Jazzlyn Garnie and Topkok led Teller with 11 and nine points, respectively.
Aguvluk is one of two seniors for the Huskies, whose roster includes nearly every girl in the school.
"Basketball is a huge part of what we do as a community," Ahmaogak said. "We're very fortunate that with the small number of girls we have, we have a huge turnout. We only have 11 girls in the high school and eight want to play."