Over 40 Southeast middle school basketball teams participated last week in the HoopTime Mike Jackson Memorial Shootout.
Juneau fielded the most teams in the tournament — 11 in all — which included five that played in championship games on Saturday in the A, B and C Divisions.
[Skagway captures long-awaited title in thriller against Haines]
HoopTime Blue defeated HoopTime Red 25-24 in the Girls C/D championship game to become the only Juneau squad to end on a win. The pair of HoopTime teams were created specially for the tournament after the C Division (sixth grade) and D Division (fourth and fifth grade) were combined due to a low number of teams.
“It was really cool just because when you split teams you never know if you’re going to get it right, and it looks like we got it right,” said Sue Beckerman, who coached both Blue and Red over the course of the tournament, trading off with Kacy Lockhart. “It was also very cool because (it’s) not very often to get two teams in the championship. It was a good win for HoopTime.”
Red took an early lead in the championship game, Beckerman said, before Blue caught up in the final minutes and squeaked out the one-point win.
HoopTime Blue, which included standout player Jadid Planco, went undefeated in their round robin pool and took down Wrangell and Haines to get to the championship game. HoopTime Red, which featured the talents of Tatum Billings and Cambry Lockhart, lost to Haines in round robin, but beat them and Sitka to advance to the final.
Sitka was the tallest team in the tournament, according to Beckerman, and getting past them was no easy feat.
“Both teams when they played Sitka did just a fantastic job of listening to what we said and doing it,” she said.
Play began on Wednesday with games spread across five different gyms. Teams were seeded into single-elimination tournaments beginning on Friday, having to win several games in a row to get to the championship. The HoopRats and HoopTime Red boys and HoopTime girls all fell in their respective title games.
Tournament Champions
Boys A — Ketchikan
Girls A — Ketchikan
Boys B — Sitka
Girls B — Sitka
Boys C/D — Sitka C
Girls C/D — HoopTime Blue
All-Tournament Teams
Boys A — (Ketchikan) Albrim Zhuta, Clayton Olstad, JJ Parker, and Archie Dundas, (HoopRats White) Antone Araujo, Alwen Carrillo, Christopher Harris, (Sitka) Tyler Adres, Dylan Crenna, (Haines) Luke Davis, (HoopTime Red) Garrett Stickler, (HoopRats Black) Spencer Collard, (HoopTime Blue) Tayten Bennetsen, (Petersburg) Jack Engell, (Angoon) Levi Johnson.
Girls A — (Ketchikan) Lindsay Byron, Bree Johnson, and Hyacynth Bondoc, (HoopTime) Mariah Schauwecker, Kiara Endicott, and Ashley Laudert, (Sitka) Marina Olney-Miller, Ava Brady, (Wrangell) Kiara Harrison.
Boys B — (Sitka) Grady Smith, Jaden Costello, Jacob Friske, Dezi Olney-Miller, (HoopTime Red) Thomas Baxter, Samuel Lockhart, Jace Ribao, (Ketchikan) Pehja Hudson, Andrew Kleinschmidt, (HoopRats) Sean Oliver, (Skagway) Austin Bricker, (HoopTime Blue) Jonathan Sleppy.
Girls B — (Sitka) Taelyn Bently, Zenaida Andrew, Dalila Callahan, Mecca Goldsberry, (Angoon) Cheyenne Kookesh, Tatum Johnson, Jadelyn Endicott, (Haines) Natalie Crager, Alison Benda, (Petersburg) Kasiah Lopez, (Skagway) Ava Myers.
Boys C/D — (Petersburg) Gage Massin, (HoopTime 4/5) Brandon Casperson, (Angoon) RJ Didrickson, (Haines) Phoenix Swaner, (HoopTime 6) Sage Janes, (HoopRats) Gavin Gerrin, Lincoln Johnson, (Sitka D) Joren Gasga, Guy Goldsberry, Trey Johnson, (Sitka C) Rex Andres, Chance Coleman, Bryce Calhoun, Trey Demmert.
Girls C/D — (HoopTime Blue) Jadid Planco, Stella Moran, Gwen Nizich, and Ella Orsborn, (HoopTime Red) Tatum Billings, Cambry Lockhart, and Layla Tokuoka, (Haines C1) Ari’el Long and Miranda Allen, (Haines C2) Stacie Wallers, (Angoon) Mary Johnson, (Sitka D) Karlee Stewart, (Petersburg) Kylie Mattingly, (Wrangell) Addie Andrews, (Sitka C) Leia Daly.
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nainsworth@juneauempire.com. Follow Empire Sports on Twitter at @akempiresports.
