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Posted 3-22-09

Lady Braves Take State

By Craig Giammona
Courtesy Daily Sitka Sentinel

ANCHORAGE – The Mt. Edgecumbe Lady Braves made history last week at Sullivan Arena, capturing the first 3A state basketball title in school history with a 32-26 win over the Anchorage Christian School Lady Lions.
    
The Mt. Edgecumbe girls played a strong defensive game and held ACS to just 2 points in the fourth quarter, scoring an upset over team that had not lost to a 3A school in three years.

MEHS coach Carl Blackhurst said it was ‘‘hands down’’ the best game the Lady Braves had played this season, and it came when it mattered most, on the state’s biggest stage.
    
Debbiey Simmers, ACS’ star, was held to 8 points, as the Lady Braves used their standard 2-3 zone to slow down one of the state’s best players.

The game, the first of four 3A/4A  state-championships tilts played March 17 in Anchorage, featured seven lead changes and five ties. As the fourth quarter got underway, ACS held a 4-point lead, the biggest of the game for either team. Bt just when it looked like the Lady Lions were closing in on their straight state title, a three-point play by Nicole Pingayak and another Mt. Edgecumbe basket gave the lead back to the Lady Braves at 27-26.
  
 Brandi Hale, a sophomore from Hooper Bay who hit the winning shot in Monday’s opening round game, made it an 8-point run, nailing a 3 from the top of the key with about 4:30 on the clock that put the Lady Braves up for good at 30-26.

“Brandi was playing junior varsity last season when we were at state,” Blackhurst said. “We knew they were leaving the middle open, she just stepped right up and hit.”
    
With the gym packed with Edgecumbe alumni, fans and players’ relatives, the final four minutes were extremely tense. But the Lady Lions were unable to hit the shots they needed to regain the lead and the final buzzer set off an emotional, and somewhat unlikely, celebration that saw the Lady Braves cut down the nets at Sullivan Arena.
 
As the players exchanged hugs, many of their parents, most of whom were armed with cameras and sported wide smiles, approached Blackhurst with a simple message: “Thank you.”
  
 “Really, really good,” was the response of senior Lainey Beaver when asked how she felt about the win. With several members of her family milling around the court, Beaver said that ever since last season, when the Lady Braves lost the championship game to ACS 38-24, she wanted another shot at the Lady Lions.
  
 “I knew it would be tough, but I knew if we played with heart, like we did, we could do it,” said Beaver, a wing player from Kotzebue.
  
 Blackhurst lost four seniors off the team that went to the state finals last season. But with Beaver, the lone returner from the starting lineup, and fellow seniors Nicole Pingayak, Bessie Binkowski and Whitney Weber and junior Christina Fields leading the way, the
Lady Braves found their way to the state championship game. Hale and senior Aeshia Upton also contributed minutes off the bench.

Blackhurst said the goal at the start of each season is to win the state championship. But with four seniors gone from an outstanding team that came up just a bit short, he had his doubts about this season.

 “That was a great team last year,” Blackhurst said. “I did think to myself if I couldn’t do it with those kids, it’s going to be tough.’’
  
It was a difficult postseason run for Mt. Edgecumbe. Haines knocked off the Lady Braves in the second-round of the Region V tournament at B.J. McGillis Gymnasium, ending a streak of two straight Region V titles and forcing Mt. Edgecumbe to battle back through the losers bracket.
    
The Lady Braves beat Craig, then topped Petersburg and Haines in one day to stay alive. The games were not easy. In the state play-in game, Mt. Edgecumbe led Haines 37-36, with about 15 seconds left. The Glaciers Bears got two good looks at the basket before the horn finally sounded, sending Blackhurst and his girls back up to state.
    
Then came the first two games at Sullivan Arena. The Lady Braves led both from start to finish, but both times they made it interesting with poor offensive performances in the fourth quarter. On Monday, the Glennallen Lady Panthers were trailing 40-38 (Hale put the Lady Braves up in the final minute after Glennallen stormed back to tie the score 38-38) when Jubilee Sutherland, one of the state’s top players, got a good look at a three-pointer that would have won the game.  The shot missed, and Edgecumbe advanced to beat a scrappy Barrow team 35-31 in the semifinals. They led the game 28-19 before the Lady Whalers clawed their way back into contention. Then it was on to the championship tilt, the second trip to the 3A title game in two years for the Lady Braves.
  
 “In hindsight, the tough road we took may have been a good thing,” Blackhurst said Wednesday. “We were battle-tested. We knew what to do when it got down to crunch time.”

As was the case throughout the tournament, Nicole Pingayak led the Lady Braves, with 17 points and six rebounds. Pingayak averaged 17 points per game during the tournament, and joined Beaver and Fields on the all-tournament team.
 
Beaver had 2 points and 7 rebounds for Mt. Edgecumbe, while Fields chipped in 6 points. Simmers and Chantell Bennett each had 8 for ACS.
    
The current classification system of 1A-4A began in 1984, and in that time this is the first 3A state title for the Lady Braves. In fact, it is just the second 3A girls state championship for a Southeast school. The last came in 1985, when Haines beat Wrangell in triple overtime.


 

Posted 3-22-09

Braves Year End Summary

Craig Giammona
Courtesy of the Daily Sitka Sentinel

ANCHORAGE – A strong postseason run by the Mt. Edgecumbe Braves ended with a 66-46 loss to Barrow in the 3A boys state third-place game at the Sullivan Arena last Wednesday.

Mt. Edgecumbe was in the game at the half, trailing 33-25, but Barrow poured in points in the final two quarters as the game got out of reach. At two or three points in the game, the Braves threatened to cut Barrow’s lead to single digits. But the Whalers made shots when they needed to, and held on to claim the bronze medal at the state tournament.

“That was a tough match-up for us,” Young said of the game against the Whalers. “They have a good group of athletes and they made some big shots.”

 Tyler Adams had 20 points for the Whalers on 6-11 shooting from behind the three-point arc, while Albert Gerke scored 14 points and grabbed 8 boards. The Whalers had four scorers in double figures.
 
Sean Melovidov scored 11 points and grabbed 7 rebounds for the Braves, while Jaylin Prince had 8 points and 5 boards. Donovan Phillip, who had 5 points and 12 rebounds, was named the player of the game for Mt. Edgecumbe. Robert Kruger, a senior from Nulato who was playing his final game for Mt. Edgecumbe, had 9 points.

Melovidov, who accepted a larger responsibility in the Mt. Edgecumbe offense after the injury to leading scorer Daniel Peters, was named to the all-tournament team for Mt. Edgecumbe.

The loss to Barrow dropped the Braves to fifth-place at state, but was the culmination of an oustanding run by a young and athletic team.

Kruger was the only senior who was part of the Braves’ rotation during their postseason run, which began with a second-place finish at the Region V tournament. The Braves beat Wrangell, shocked Sitka, then lost 72-71 in the Region V final to Haines. The next night, the Braves rebounded to beat Metlakatla and earn a trip north to the state tournament.

 Edgecumbe ended up in the third-place game after beating Glennallen in the first-round and losing to Nome in the state semifinals. The Glennallen game was sent into overtime when a Panthers player nailed a three at the end of regulation. But once again, the Braves regrouped and held on for a 49-46 win.

 Coach Archie Young credited his players for making a run deep into the postseason.

    “I don’t think anyone in the region thought we’d be here,” Young said, adding that his team had been “written off” after Peters went down. Peters was injured in the final seconds of a regular season win over Craig, just when he and the Braves were playing their best basketball. At the time, things looked bleak for the Braves.
    
Peters, a solid post player, was the focus of the Braves’ offense all season, and some observers thought the Braves looked ripe for an early exit from the Region V tournament. But after Peters broke his foot, the Braves somehow managed to morph into an up-tempo team that played smothering defense.

Their style of play earned the team a lot of fans at the Region V tournament, and a few more at Sullivan Arena. Young said his players deserved the credit for the transition.
  

 “I put it on them,” Young said. “That’s how we wanted to play all year, at least defensively. They made the decision to compete and leave it all out on the floor.”
 

 

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