There was no lack of talent among the eight teams playing in the Gold Medal B Bracket last week.
But only one that had all the right pieces to win a championship.
Haines outscored Hoonah 10-4 in overtime, winning 79-73 Saturday night in the 2017 Lions Club Gold Medal Tournament B Bracket championship. It was the second Hoonah-Haines championship game and third champion from Northern Lynn Canal to be crowned on the day. The Haines women and the Klukwan C Bracket teams also won their respective brackets.
“It’s just a complete relief more than anything,” Tyler Healy said. “It’s been a decade since Haines has won it and it’s the first one for me personally, the first one for a lot of these younger guys. … I couldn’t ask for anything else man, it’s unreal.”
Healy, who at 34 was one of the oldest players in the B Bracket, finished with 20 points. Kyle Fossman quietly put up 29 points on a mix of free throws and 3-pointers. Hoonah’s Richard Moore and Jaylin Prince guarded Fossman tight, and the former state high school Gatorade Player of the Year was hit for several offensive fouls.
Jonathan Torres led all Hoonah scorers with 25 points, followed by Jaylin Prince’s 11 points and Brian Koenig and Charles Carteeti’s 9 apiece.
Haines jumped out to 10-0 lead before Torres’ offense kicked in. The hulking Hoonah forward, who doesn’t shy away from taking defenders off-the-dribble, scored 15 first-half points to keep his team in the game.
Hoonah went on a 10-3 run early in the second half, setting up the highly-contentious last 10 minutes of the game as Haines led by six or fewer points the rest of the way.
“Hoonah played so tough man, those guys, they fed off that crowd for sure, and gosh, took us right down to the wire,” Healy said.
Torres made both his free throws at 1:32 of the second half that finally abolished Haines’ lead completely. Thirty seconds later DJ Lindstrom’s 3-pointer from the left corner put Hoonah up 68-67, sending the 100-deep Hoonah fan section into a frenzy. It was Lindstrom’s first field goal of the game. The game was sent to overtime after Prince’s last-second shot came up short.
Ben Egolf scored the first points of overtime on a turn-around jumper, beginning Haines’ 10-4 run to finish out the contest.
As one of the veterans on the Haines team, having suited up in 10 prior Gold Medals, Healy said his teammates were especially happy for him.
“They knew that I’d been waiting for this for a long time, and it’s just really awesome,” he said.
2017 B Bracket Gold Medal All-Tournament Team
DJ Lindstrom, Hoonah
Brian Koenig, Hoonah
Ryan Howell, Wrangell
Clayton Edwin, Angoon
Kyle Rush, Haines
Tyler Healy, Haines
Ben Egolf, Haines
Vinny Edenshaw, Hydaburg
Erik James, Wrangell (Sportsmanship Award)
MVP: Kyle Fossman, Haines
Correction: An earlier version of this article omitted Haines player Ben Egolf from the All-Tournament team. Egolf was named to the B Bracket All-Tournament Team. The Empire regrets the error.
Haines’s Orion Falvey, left, and Hoonah’s Richard Moore chase after a loose ball in the B Bracket finals of the Lions Club’s 71st Gold Medal Basketball Tournament at Juneau-Douglas High School on March 25, 2017. Haines won in overtime 79-73. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)
