Ken Willard ended up being Hoonah’s fourth-leading scorer in Thursday’s M Bracket semifinal, but for a crucial span, he was the team’s catalyst.
The quick, diminutive guard scored seven points in a two-minute span, giving Hoonah the momentum it needed to build a lead on Angoon. Hoonah didn’t let go en route to a 94-67 victory.
Hoonah, which made 18 threes during Thursday’s offensive outburst, will now play for the M Bracket Championship at 4 p.m. Saturday.
Hoonah held a 19-15 lead midway through the first half, but neither team could get a shot to go down for a few minutes. As Hoonah pulled down a defensive rebound, Willard sprinted down the court to the other end. Albert Hinchman launched a full-court pass to Willard, who then drew a foul and made both free throws.
Willard hit a three on the next possession and a field goal a couple possessions later. He finished with 11 points and said he was merely trying to work the ball inside and out during that successful stretch.
“Once we started getting that going,” Willard said, “they left me open a few times, I knocked down two or three shots and got it going our way. The flow started going our way and everybody started feeling a lot better about ourselves.”
Willard’s mini run pushed Hoonah’s lead to double digits, and by the end of the first half, that lead was up to 23 points. The lead stayed in that range for much of the rest of the game, ballooning to nearly 30.
Greg Garcia scored 17 for Hoonah, hitting five threes and going about his business with a quiet precision. Early on Angoon lost track of Garcia, who scored 14 of Hoonah’s first 24 points.
As the second half began, Angoon’s Paul Johnson immediately hit a three, but Garcia calmly swished one on the other end, showing his team wasn’t going to wilt.
“He’s tough,” Willard said of Garcia. “He knows how to get himself open. He’s always cutting. He’s pretty quick for his age, so it’s kind of tough for a lot of guys to stick with him.”
Hinchman was his usual self, hitting five threes of his own and scoring 17 points. Eleven players scored for Hoonah, which emptied its bench as the game went along.
Angoon’s Frank Jack scored more than Garcia and Hinchman combined, totaling 35 points, scoring 22 of them after halftime and hitting nine threes throughout the game. The run isn’t over for Jack and Angoon, as Kake awaits in the finale of the loser’s bracket, set to tip off at 3:30 p.m. Friday. The winner of that game will face Hoonah on Saturday.
Hoonah made the championship a year ago as well, falling short against Kake. Willard said the team has been making an effort to rest its starters a little more during this year’s run than it did last year. He hopes it will pay off Saturday.
“Last year, I think the main players played pretty much the whole game and then by championship time, you could tell the legs weren’t there,” Willard said, starting to smirk. “We aren’t in our 20s anymore.”
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at alex.mccarthy@juneauempire.com or 523-2271
Angoon’s Frank Jack, right, passes around Hoonah’s Tierney Bible in their Masters Bracket game in the Lions Club’s Gold Medal Basketball Tournament at Juneau-Douglas High School on Thursday. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)
