State basketball tournament notebook: Coaching legends combine forces in Valdez

When Valdez had an unexpected coaching vacancy just before the girls season started, a retired Alaska coaching legend got the call.

“There was a need in Valdez,” said longtime Buccaneers girls basketball coach Barb Lyons. “Their coach ended up not coming back to coach when he was supposed to about a month before the season. We called and talked about it. We left the RV in Phoenix and my husband and I flew back up.”

And when Lyons took the job for the 2021-22 season, she made the call to another Valdez coaching icon to join her staff.

“I said ‘Dan if I’m coming back, guess what you’re going to do too,’ ” she said. “After Christmas time, he got some stuff done and he came back up too. We enjoy basketball. We’ve been out of it for awhile but it’s a blast. We’ve got good hard-working kids so it’s kind of getting the program going again. It’s been a blast.”

Valdez, seeded No. 8, fell to top seed Monroe Catholic 36-21 on Wednesday in the opening round at the Alaska 3A Girls Basketball Tournament.

“This is the fourth time we’ve played them and they’re tough,” Lyons said. “I’ve very proud of how the kids scrambled and worked. They represented Valdez well.”

Eide said he had 30 years of head coaching experience and Lyons said she had 29.

“60 years,” said Eide with a chuckle as he started totaling up their combined experience.

Lyons and Eide coached side-by-side as the girls and boys coaches in Valdez for years, but this season has allowed them to work in tandem for the first time.

“We were always, them in the locker room and us on the floor or us in the locker room while they are playing,” Eide said. “This time we’ve got the chance to work together.”

“We sit there and argue about stuff but it’s nice to have one coach talk to the defense and one coach talk to the offense which is difficult to do a lot of times,” Lyons said.

Lyons said she plans to return to coach next season and hopes to persuade Edie to return again as assistant.

“It’s a great game and it teaches kids,” said Eide, who was elected to the Alaska High School Hall of Fame in 2009.

— Chris Bieri

Barrow’s Brower beams in comeback win

It was mostly dour faces for the Barrow girls basketball team during the first quarter of their opening-round game as they fell down 20-9 to Redington.

But late in the 4th quarter, Barrow’s Lewis (Caitlyn) Bower was beaming as she sank three late 3-pointers to help erase a deficit and help the Whalers to a 47-40 win over the Huskies.

Whalers head coach Derek Ahgeak said the team didn’t come ready to play and not being able to compete at state the last two years due to COVID meant the team was a little short on postseason experience.

“When she’s on then the rest of the team picks up on it,” Ahgeak said. “When those shots start falling, you start working harder on defense and it’s a domino effect ... The body language changes.”

Brower, who led the Whalers with 13 points, was 2-for-8 in the first half.

“I had so much adrenaline in the first half and was feeling all the pressure,” she said. “You’ve got to just keep your head in the game and keep trying and trying.”

The Whalers got their first lead of the game at 32-31 with just under six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. They slowly pulled away as Bower sank as series of 3-pointers late.

Bower’s body language was the most evident as her smile got increasingly larger with each made shot.

“The last one I didn’t think it would go in,” she said. “It was kind of a stepback. I was having a lot of excitement when the shots went in.”

— Chris Bieri

Sneaker swap

Sneaker culture has been a big part of basketball since before Michael Jordan revolutionized the market with the Nike Air Jordan.

But at the 3A/4A Alaska State Basketball Tournament and last week’s 1A/2A edition, one of the most noticeable on-court trends was players wearing two different shoes.

On the Barrow boys team, Aaron Stackhouse sported two different shoes, each that matched his team’s blue and yellow uniforms.

“For me it’s just fashion,” he said. “Fashion is pretty cool, it’s changing every day, every year. It goes on and on to new decades and new eras.”

His teammate Loia Dias sported a much more brightly colored pink and green pair.

Stackhouse said you can order the mismatched pairs online, but his were hand-designed by an aunt.

“She made them on her own,” he said. “I just had some shoes and she made them for me.”

Stackhouse said he knows an opponent is going to be imposing if they’re wearing a pair of the fashionable shoes.

“If you’ve got good taste, you know it’s going to be a good player,” he said.

— Chris Bieri

South pulls away in the fourth period to advance to semis

After playing a tightly-contested game with the third seeded Kodiak Bears for the first three quarters, the No. 6 seed South Anchorage Wolverines exploded in the fourth to come away with a nearly 20-point victory and move on to the 4A semifinals.

“In the fourth quarter our guys decided to attack the rim a little more and it showed up in scoring 20 points,” South Coach Jamaal Siah. “We have a great team and have a lot of playmakers on our team and we’re thankful that we were able to pull off the victory.”

The Wolverines held a narrow three-point lead at the end of the third quarter and relied on strong defense to set up their explosive offense in the final eight minutes.

“We knew we were going to win,” senior Alonso Ponce De Leon said. “We just had to keep fighting, stay locked in on defense, get some stops and score.”

Ponce De Leon finished as South’s second leading scorer behind Luke Ivanoff but led the team in points when it matter most in the fourth quarter. He aggressively drove into the paint to score eight of his 12 points on four hard-fought layups.

“I had an attacking mentality in the second half,” Ponce De Leon said. “Coach told me to attack the paint more so I did.”

As team captain, his gritty performance personified the composure and relentlessness the Wolverines played with to closeout the game and advance to the final four for the first time since the 2007-2008 season when they won their only state title in school history.

“He’s the heart and soul of our team,” Siah said. “He led out team in scoring this year and when it is time to turn it on under the bright lights I knew Alonso would pull through for us.”

— Josh Reed

Second half sharpshooting sends Sitka girls to 3A semifinals

Despite shooting an abysmal 25 percent from the field in the first half of their quarterfinals matchup with No. 5 seed Kenai Central, the No. 4 Sitka Wolves still managed to have a two-point lead at halftime. In what was a tale of two halves in terms of shooting, the they flipped the script and could hardly miss in the final two quarters.

“We switched up our defense a little bit, took a look at some of the things they were doing offensively and tried to move the ball around a little,” Sitka coach Mindy Bartolaba said.

In the second half the Wolves converted 12-of-19 attempts from the field for a greatly improved 75 percent were led in scoring by Maitlin Young with 13 points. The only other player to reach double digits in scoring was Kenai Central’s Emma Beck who scored a game-high 20 points.

“We just started shooting more, not questioning, just shooting,” she added.

— Josh Reed

East marches past Juneau-Douglas in first step towards title defense

The top seed and reigning 4A state champion Bettye Davis East High school boys basketball team began its quest to repeat as champions at the state tournament with a commanding win over the No. 8 seed Juneau-Douglas.

Senior Elijah Reed led the Thunderbirds in scoring with a game-high 19 points, 10 of which came in the first half alone. Reed was the only player on his team to score in double figures was especially sharp from behind the arc where we went 3-of-6.

“I just came out there and brought as much energy as I could to bring us a win,” Reed said. “It’s very important to show teams that we’re still the ones to beat and that we’re here to fight.”

— Josh Reed

Underwood comes up clutch in upset of undefeated West Valley

Usually when a fourth and fifth seed meet in the postseason, the game is a toss up and viewed as anyone’s game. In the case of the Colony’s 52-42 win over the West Valley Wolf Pack, the Knights took down a previously undefeated team that boasted a perfect 24-0 record heading into the state tournament and had 2022 Gatorade Player of the Year, Stewart Erhart, leading them.

“Our game plan was to slow them down and I think we did a good job of that the whole game, we played hard and got the ‘W,’ ” Jayce Underwood said.

The junior point guard scored a game-high 25 points and came up clutch for his team in crunch time. He hit back-to-back 3-pointers to tie the game at 42-42 with 4:31 left in the fourth quarter and took over from there.

“Five minutes left, down by six, that was my time to take over so that’s what I did,” Underwood said. “Usually when I start hitting shots, it hypes up the crowd, it starts getting into my head and I’m locked in.”

Up next for the Knights is a matchup with top seeded East who hasn’t lost to an Alaskan opponent since February of 2020 to none other than Colony in a 45-41 home defeat. Underwood is confident in his team’s ability to make history repeat itself on the biggest stage.

“We just have to play with the same energy we played with today and I think we can beat them,” Underwood said. “The last time they lost it was to us and I think we can do it again.”

— Josh Reed

Alaska Girls 3A State Basketball Tournament

At Alaska Airlines Center

Wednesday’s results

Quarterfinals

No. 1 Monroe Catholic 36, No. 8 Valdez 21

No. 4 Sitka 47, No. 5 Kenai Central 34

No. 3 Barrow 47, No. 6 Redington 40

No. 2 Grace Christian 59, No. 7 Bethel 15

Thursday’s games

Consolation

Valdez vs. Kenai Central, 10:30 a.m. Main Gym

Redington vs. Bethel, 10:30 a.m. Auxiliary Gym

Semifinals

Monroe Catholic vs. Sitka, 3:15 p.m. Main Gym

Barrow vs. Grace Christian, 4:45 p.m. Main Gym

Alaska Boys 3A State Basketball Tournament

At Alaska Airlines Center

Wednesday’s results

Quarterfinals

No. 1 Houston 58, No. 8 Mt. Edgecumbe 42

No. 4 Nome-Beltz 68, No. 5 Hutchison 39

No. 3 Valdez 52, No. 6 Homer 39

No. 2 Grace Christian 80, No. 7 Barrow 48

Thursday’s games

Consolation

Mt. Edgecumbe vs. Hutchison, noon Main Gym

Homer vs. Barrow, noon Auxiliary Gym

Semifinals

Houston vs. Nome-Beltz, 6:15 p.m. Main Gym

Valdez vs. Grace Christian, 7:45 p.m. Main Gym

Alaska Girls 4A State Basketball Tournament

At Alaska Airlines Center

Wednesday’s results

Quarterfinals

No. 1 Anchorage Christian 84, No. 8 Lathrop 18

No. 5 Ketchikan 56, No. 4 Colony 50

No. 3 West Anchorage 53, No. 6 Dimond 34

No. 2 Wasilla 52, No. 7 Bartlett 41

Friday’s games

Consolation

Lathrop vs. Colony, 11 a.m. Main Gym

Dimond vs. Bartlett, 9:30 a.m. Auxiliary Gym

Semifinals

Anchorage Christian vs. Ketchikan, 3:15 p.m. Main Gym

West Anchorage vs. Wasilla, 4:45 p.m. Main Gym

Alaska Boys 4A State Basketball Tournament

At Alaska Airlines Center

Wednesday’s results

Quarterfinals

No. 1 Bettye Davis East 59, No. 8 Juneau-Douglas 46

No 5 Colony 52, No. 4 West Valley 42

No. 6 South Anchorage 52, No. 3 Kodiak 33

No. 2 Dimond 67, No. 7 Palmer 53

Friday’s games

Consolation

Juneau-Douglas vs. West Valley, 12:30 p.m. Main Gym

Kodiak vs. Palmer, 12:30 p.m. Auxiliary Gym

Semifinals

Bettye Davis East vs. Colony, 6:15 p.m. Main Gym

South Anchorage vs. Dimond, 7:45 p.m. Main Gym

(Game scores and matchups will be updated Wednesday as the games are completed)