With a state championship at stake, Sitka's Sidney Riggs was right where she wanted to be Saturday afternoon -- and right where the Valdez Buccaneers feared she would be.
Riggs, a senior playing in her second state championship game, sank nine free throws in the final quarter, including three in the final 35 seconds, to lift Sitka to a 53-50 victory over Valdez in the Class 3A title game at Sullivan Arena
The championship is the first for the Wolves, who won by getting to the foul line. More specifically, by getting Riggs to the foul line.
"She's our best player. We want the ball in her hands at the end of the game," Sitka coach Sondra Lundvick said.
"Who else's hands do you put it in?" Valdez coach Doug Fleming said. "We didn't want to put her on the line. We didn't want to, but we had to."
In a see-saw game with eight lead changes, Sitka gained an edge midway through the fourth quarter. In a span of 15 seconds, Zoe Krupa and Riggs furnished back-to-back, traditional three-point plays for the Wolves -- a sequence made possible by freshman Mackenzie Campbell's steal between those plays -- to give Sitka a 45-37 lead.
Sitka's lead fluctuated between five to eight points until Makenzi Mott scored off an offensive rebound for Valdez to trim the gap to 50-47 with 69 seconds left.
Both teams had scoreless possessions after that. With less than 40 seconds left, the Buccaneers needed to foul in order to keep Sitka from spreading its offense and running down the clock. And the Wolves needed to give the ball to Riggs so when the fouls came, their best foul shooter went to the line.
"It's the main shot I practice, because I know it's important when it comes down to the end of the game," said Riggs, whose 18 points included 11 of 13 shooting from the line. "These are the kind of games I live for."
With time winding down, Riggs got the ball after a Valdez miss and dribbled through full-court pressure. Marian Wamsley -- a Valdez senior who was named the Class 3A Player of the Year prior to the tournament -- fouled Riggs with 35 seconds left and Sitka leading 50-47. It was Wamsley's fifth and disqualifying foul.
After a Sitka timeout, Riggs calmly drained both free throws. Valdez answered with a clutch 3-pointer from senior Veronica Hursh, and with 16 seconds left Riggs drew another foul. Although she missed her second free throw, the first one was enough to seal the victory. Hursh's desparation shot from 25 feet hit nothing but air.
"We did everything we could," Fleming said. "It's heart-wrenching."
Mott finished with 13 points and Wamsley and Madison Fleming, who also fouled out late, each chipped in 12 for the Buccaneers.
Krupa led all scorers with 21, and although she was money at the foul line too -- 5 of 6 -- the sophomore was happy to see Riggs go to the foul line.
"I knew she would make them," she said. "I had a really good feeling."
So did Lundvick, who is in her first season at Sitka after coaching three years at Metlakatla before spending two years in Hawaii.
"I was ready to go to sleep, I was so comfortable (with Riggs at the line)," she said.
This was the third state-tournament appearance for Riggs, who as a freshman was Sitka's sixth man but was forced into a starting role at the state tournament that year because of an injury to a teammate. The Wolves made it to the title game but lost to Galena in overtime.
"It was a brutal loss," Riggs said. "Ever since then my dream is to cut down the net."
She and the rest of the Wolves had to wait awhile before that could happen. Sitka and Valdez played in the first of four straight championship games Saturday, and the Wolves couldn't cut down the nets until after the Class 3A boys game between Barrow and Monroe.
"I hope that game goes fast," she said.
As for the rest of the team's celebratory plans, Riggs said a special meal was in order.
"We're going to Taco Bell," she said. "We don't have that down in Sitka."