The Haines girls’ basketball team took first place over the weekend at the Don Hather Basketball Tournament in Skagway.  The Haines boys finished in second place.  Skagway’s girls and boys’ teams took third and fourth places, respectively.  

 

The long-standing Don Hather Basketball Tournament took place over the weekend where the Haines girls took first place.  

 

Skagway hosted the event.  Haines, Skagway, and Klawock sent their varsity teams to compete while Thunder Mountain sent their JV team. Visiting teams slept in classrooms at the school and local volunteers prepared their meals.  

 

The Haines girls went 3-1 in the tournament.  They started with an early loss to the Klawock Chieftains.  Haines’ girls’ Coach Coleman Stanford said that after a loss, it’s very difficult to go into the locker room and talk about making changes in real-time.  But that’s what they did. He said it was a highlight for him to watch the girls execute those strategies when they faced off against the Chieftains again in the championship game.  This time they won, and claimed the championship title.

 

The Haines boys played for the first time this season with their starting five players.  Two members of the starting lineup are also wrestlers who were competing in the postseason.  The team went 2 and 2 in the tournament, finishing in second place.  They lost their first game by double digits to the Klawock team but then won their next two games, beating teams they had lost to earlier in the season.  The championship game was a rematch against Klawock.  The boys held the game close, leading into the third quarter, but Klawock eventually ended up on top at the buzzer.  Haines’ boys’ Coach James Hart said the young team played standout defense.  He says it was a highlight to watch the boys bind together and play hard, tight defense for full games.

 

The Skagway girls finished third in the tournament.  They beat Thunder Mountain’s JV team twice but were overtaken by Klawock and Haines.  One of their best players, Ava Myers, was sidelined from a bad ankle sprain but the team was able to fill her void.  Skagway’s girls’ Coach Nate Jennings said this is one of the deepest and strongest squads he’s led in his seven years as coach.  

 

The Skagway boys finished the tournament in fourth, with early wins over Thunder Mountain and Klawock.

 

The tournament drew a large crowd. The Skagway Spirit Squad returned after a few-year hiatus, performing the Skagway Panther cheer during time-outs. The spirit squad is made up of members from kindergarten to sixth grade. Jennings said it was “super cool” to have them back, and that the youngest participants brought a smile to the arena.

 

The Haines teams play Petersburg at home this weekend.  The games will count towards their region tournament seeding.  Skagway travels to Hoonah on Sunday, and then the girls head to Juneau for the Elizabeth Peratrovich Invitational.

CORRECTION:  An earlier version of this story mistakenly stated the tournament as Heather Land.  This version of the story has been corrected.