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Kotzebue boys second at Tri-Valley Tourney

January 20th 3:07 am | Van Williams Print this article   Email this article   Create a Shortlink for this article

The Kotzebue boys basketball team ran into a tough and tall Susitna Valley squad in last week's Tri-Valley Tournament in Healy.

Twice, Su Valley and its 6-foot-7 center beat the Huskies, including a 30-21 decision in the tournament's championship game.

"Our defense was good. We just couldn't score," said Kotzebue coach Craig McConnell.

You can credit Su Valley for making life tough on the Huskies.

"Very good team, very well coached," McConnell said. "Any time you got past a defender you ran into (the 6-7 kid). It was hard to score inside. Most of our scoring came from the outside."

Kotzebue opened the tournament with a 51-47 victory over the Lathrop JV, a 4A school in Fairbanks. The Huskies opened a 14-point lead and never looked back.

Up next was the first meeting against Su Valley, who won 38-29.

That loss knocked Kotzebue into the consolation bracket, where the Huskies met the Lathrop JV again. Same team, same result - except this one was tough.

They won 35-27 after an amazing comeback that saw Kotzebue go from being down 9 points with four minutes to go to winning by 8 points - a dizzying differential of 17 points.

"We really picked it up," McConnell said.

From there, the Huskies advanced to the championship game. This title run came two weeks after Kotzebue won the Husky Shootout.

But it's not all good.

"We lost a player [who moved out of town] since the Husky Shootout; one of our better scorers, that's why we're having a hard time scoring," McConnell said.

"We got a new starter, a freshman, who replaced the kid who left. He's going to be a good player, a great athlete; but he's really green right now."

Kotzebue - which played Galena earlier in the week - will host Dillingham in a pair of Western Conference games Friday and Saturday.

Van Williams can be reached at sports@reportalaska.com.

 

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