High School Sports

Sophomore sharpshooter leads Barrow to 3A boys state basketball title

Much of the attention leading up to Saturday afternoon's Class 3A boys state title game focused on a trio of seniors, including a Division I Texas Longhorns signee dressed in street clothes who watched from the Barrow bench.

Enter show-stealing Whalers sophomore Brendon Matthews and his array of long balls. The underclassman overwhelmed in Barrow's 65-52 victory over Grace Christian.

Matthews nailed three 3-pointers in the first quarter and added four more in the third en route to a game-high 30 points, leading the Whalers to their third state championship in the last four seasons.

Matthews' exploits were watched closely by friend Kamaka Hepa, the 6-foot-9 senior star who left the state two years ago to dominate in Oregon high-school play and earn a spot at Texas of the Big 12 Conference. Hepa certainly stood tall as he cheered on the Whalers.

Two other renowned seniors didn't disappoint. UAA-bound Travis Adams of Barrow (12 points, four assists) and Tobin Karlberg of Grace (28 points, six rebounds) gave a nearly-full Alaska Airlines Center house a taste of what may come for Seawolves basketball. Both were named first-team all-state players, and Karlberg earned Gatorade and Class 3A player-of-the-year honors.

But the day belonged to Matthews.

"Coach (Jeremy Arnhart) said that winning this game might come down to me shooting lights-out," Matthews said. "I kept thinking about that during warmups and my confidence just grew from there after I hit my first one."

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The first triple dropped 54 seconds into play. Matthews' next two came in the following 61 seconds as Barrow grabbed an early 9-0 lead.

"Brendon, that's my little brother right there," an excited Adams said of Matthews' ridiculous start. "You know, people better watch out because he's got two more years left. He put on quite the show.

"He's been killing us like that in practice for quite a while, so you knew it was going to happen eventually. It's nice that it happened in the biggest game of the year."

Barrow held an 18-15 lead at the end of the first quarter and led 24-19 at halftime after a sluggish second quarter that featured only 10 points.

"We had to get back to dictating tempo," said Arnhart, who plans to leave Barrow and move to Anchorage. "We like to score, we like to get up and down. Brendon hitting his shots was huge for us."

Matthews' final 3-pointer came with 28 seconds remaining in the third quarter and extended the Whalers' lead to 49-36. Grace narrowed the deficit to three points earlier in the quarter, but would never get closer.

[An Utqiagvik family is helping its standout teen follow hoop dreams to elite levels in high school and college.]

"A game of runs, like most game are," Karlberg said. "Barrow shot the ball pretty well and has been playing great basketball these last few weeks."

Matthews won't be the only Barrow sophomore worth keeping an eye on. Anthony Fruean, a solid 6-foot-5 inside presence, finished with 14 points, including two 3-pointers, and 13 rebounds. The Whalers held a 32-27 rebounding edge and made seven more field goals than the defending-champion Grizzlies (19-6).

Grace 6-4 senior Jimmy McGovern turned in a double-double performance with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Hepa returned to Alaska earlier in the week so he can graduate with his Barrow class. Adams said his presence and friendship played a key role in inspiring the Whalers (17-11) to reel off three straight wins at state.

"We were still talking the entire time (Hepa) was down there, and we're going to be brothers for life," Adams said. "He's been so supportive and now I look forward to spending as much time with him as possible before he goes to Texas and I go to UAA."

Speaking of the Seawolves, both Adams and Karlberg expressed major excitement about playing at UAA sooner rather than later.

"I hope the people who watched us out there today come out and support us next season," Karlberg said. "I really think we're going to make some noise together. We've been playing against one another for far too long, so it will be awesome to part of the same team."

ACS 68, Monroe 66

Anchorage Christian held off a big fourth-quarter comeback by Monroe to capture third place with a 68-66 victory.

Down 45-34 after three quarters, the Rams outscored ACS 32-23 in the fourth quarter but couldn't complete the comeback.

Danilo Guzman's 21 points and Demarcus Hall-Scriven's 15 points paced the Lions.

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Gavin Jackson put up enough shots to have a big game for Monroe, scoring 29 points despite shooting 4 of 18 from 3-point range.

Valdez 72, Mt. Edgecumbe 59

Bennett Hinkle and Logan Heckathorn combined for 40 points to power Valdez to fourth place.

Hinkle connected on 8 of 11 shots from the field for a game-high 21 points. Jalen Freeman tossed in 13 points for the Buccaneers.

Mt. Edgecumbe's Jamal Alstrom impressed with 14 points, 11 assists, seven rebounds and four steals.

All-Tournament Team

Jamal Alstrom, Barrow
Jimmy McGovern, Grace
Gavin Jackson, Monroe
Anthony Fruean, Barrow
Danilo Guzman, ACS
Brendon Mathews, Barrow
Orlando Lozano, ACS
Travis Adams, Barrow
Tobin Karlberg, Grace
Bennett Hinkle, Valdez

Matt Nevala

Matt Nevala co-hosts “The Sports Guys” radio show, Saturdays at 11 a.m. on KHAR AM 590 and FM 96.7 (@cbssports590). Find him on social media at @MNevala9.

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