Orion Falvey and Kyle Rush will be joining Haines’ Gold Medal B Bracket team on Tuesday in time for Thursday’s quarterfinal with Hoonah.
But after a 82-52 second round blowout of Wrangell Monday night, Haines may want to stick with their six-man rotation.
“It’s only six [players], but it’s a group of high-basketball-IQ guys,” Ben Egolf said after his team’s win. “So its various generations of Haines basketball and we all have the same kind of background.”
Haines shot lights-out and quickly buried Wrangell long before the first half was even up.
Kyle Fossman made five 3-pointers in the first half before taking a backseat in the second to finish with 25 points. Ben Egolf and Tyler Healy scored 22 and 23 respectively.
“When you add someone like Kyle Fossman, whose kind of a once-in-a-generation guy out of a small town in Alaska, that makes everything easy for everybody else,” Egolf said.
In stark contrast to its opponent, Wrangell had a full bench, but no players able to supply more than 10 points.
Trailing 50-25 at halftime, Wrangell fared much better in the second half but was still outscored five points over the final 20 minutes.
Egolf expects a much more tightly contested quarterfinal game Thursday at 7:30 p.m. against Hoonah, which bring plenty of supporters to Juneau every year for the tournament.
“It’s the thing that keeps me grinding out here at 34, out running hills and stuff like that, seeing these crowds of Southeast villages that shut down shop to come here and pack the gym,” he said.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated Thursday’s game against Hoonah is at 6 p.m. The game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. This article has been updated to reflect the change.
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nolin.ainsworth@juneauempire.com.
