The ball clanged off the back rim, and for a brief moment Hoonah had life.
Down double-digits to Angoon with under two minutes to play, Hoonah had cut its deficit to just five points with just under a minute left. Then Angoon’s Stephen Johnson missed two free throws, and the rebound was up for grabs.
Johnson wasn’t giving up, though. He darted toward the loose ball and snatched it, giving Angoon another chance to score. Hoonah fouled Johnson, who made one of two free throws, and another offensive rebound off his miss led to two more Angoon free throws.
Those two offensive rebounds gave Angoon the extra cushion late to hang on for the 88-82 win in the C Bracket matchup. Angoon will play at 9 p.m. Thursday against the winner of Monday’s night game between Filcom and Klukwan. Hoonah is headed to the loser’s bracket and will play at 6 p.m. Wednesday against the winner of Tuesday’s Kake-Metlakatla game.
Angoon’s Dustin Endicott, who finished tied for the team high with 17 points, said that extra level of hustle was the difference Monday. He and his teammates pushed the pace starting after halftime, sensing that Hoonah was wearing down.
“We saw they were getting tired, so we knew if we kept pushing it, it would play to our advantage,” Endicott said. “It worked out, hustling at the end, scrapping. It turned into a scrap fight.”
The third quarter turned the tide for Angoon, which turned a 5-point halftime deficit into an 8-point lead by the end of the quarter. Endicott had seven of Angoon’s 19 points in the quarter. Curtis Lane also finished with 17 points for Angoon, doing most of his damage in the first half.
Travis Dybdahl led the late comeback for Hoonah, hitting two long threes in the final minutes. He finished with a game-high 31 points, making a trio of threes and shooting 10-for-18 from the foul line.
The frantic final minutes resulted in players sprawling all over the court chasing down loose balls and battling for rebounding position. Endicott said they knew no matter how tired Hoonah players were, they were dangerous.
“It’s Hoonah,” Endicott said. “They’re a good team. We expected it. Luckily we had a big enough lead so it didn’t hurt us more than it needed to.”
Hoonah jumped out to an early lead and held that lead for most of the first half. Hoonah’s lead reached seven points at one point early in the second quarter, and led by five at halftime, 52-47.
The crowd was raucous and engaged, as the gym at Juneau-Douglas High School was packed.
“It was fun,” Endicott said. “That’s what it’s all about. That’s why we came here.”
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at 523-2271 or amccarthy@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @akmccarthy.
