There weren’t too many plays in Thursday’s C Bracket Juneau-Metlakatla game on which Alex Heumann wasn’t scoring.
The first-year Gold Medal player, did, however, quiet down in the fourth quarter of the Juneau Lions Club Gold Medal Basketball Tournament contest.
It was almost enough to get Metlakatla over the hump. Instead, Juneau won 89-86 to eliminate Metlakatla and move on to Friday night’s semifinal against the loser of Thursday night’s Angoon-Klukwan game.
Metlakatla, which features the high-scoring Willie and Richie Hayward, all but erased an eight-point deficit late in the fourth.
After teaming up with his brother to score seven straight points, Richie Hayward looked to tie the game 83-83 with a little over a minute to go. After coming down with two offensive rebounds, Richie Hayward missed a 3-pointer from the right wing after an aggressive Juneau close out.
Fans of Metlakatla immediately expressed their outrage that Juneau was not called for the foul to send Richie Hayward to the line for three foul shots.
“I guarantee I would have made those three,” Richie Hayward said. “I missed the first two (free throws earlier in the quarter) but I’m at least a 90 percent free-throw shooter this tournament, so without it getting that call, it was big.”
Willie Hayward scored 37 points and Richie Hayward had 21 points for Metlakatla.
“One thing I noticed playing on the same floor with them is they play with such an amazing pace,” Heumann said of the Haywards. “It’s hard to get them uncomfortable or rushed or in a hurry. They’re so strong and so skilled that they can get to their spot and find their two to three inches to release a shot from there and it was tough to guard.”
Heumann scored 54 points in the win. Jason Morford scored 18 points and Joshua Dean added 10 points.
Metlakatla had played just 17 hours earlier in a close game against Hoonah. It was their fourth game of the tournament, just like Juneau. Since the tournament began on Sunday, both teams have only had one day off.
The game was deadlocked at 49-45 for the first two minutes of the third quarter. Two free throws got Morford going at 7:34 of the quarter though, and the shooting guard scored five straight points in the next minute to give Juneau its first double-digit lead. A Dean basket gave Juneau its largest lead of the game at 12 midway through the quarter.
Juneau eliminated Metlakatla from the tournament last year, as well.
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nainsworth@juneauempire.com.
Juneau Crush’s Sean Joslyn, left, attempts a steal on Metlakatla’s Marti Fred in a C bracket game in the Juneau’s Lion’s Gold Medal Basketball Tournament at Juneau-Douglas High School on Thursday, March 22, 2018. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)
