Filcom was within breathing distance of completing an improbable comeback.
After trailing Klukwan, the defending C Bracket champion, by upwards of 20 points in Monday’s winner’s bracket contest, Filcom had whittled the lead all the way down to six with a minute and a half to play.
Filcom’s Christian Carpeneti, who led his team with 22 points and was key in the comeback, faked a three in the corner and drove to the lane, looking to make a play. He dished to the middle of the lane, but a Klukwan defender swooped in and snagged the pass.
That was the closest Filcom got, as the defending champions calmly knocked down free throws and made stops the rest of the time to fend off Filcom, 75-69. Filcom now heads to the loser’s bracket, set to play at 6 p.m Wednesday.
“Their experience kicked in,” Filcom coach Mike Lim said. “They’re a really good team.”
One of those who made his foul shots at the end was Andrew Friske, who led Klukwan in scoring once again. He finished with a game-high 30 points, making four threes and all four of his free throws. That followed an 18-point performance in the team’s win Sunday over Kake.
His teammate Jason Shull added 19, including a five-point burst in the final 30 seconds of the first half. Shull said that while the team can score in bunches, it all comes back to the other end of the floor.
“Defense is what drives the boat for us,” Shull said. “If we play good defense and create offense out of our defense, we’re usually pretty tough to stop. It’s a matter of us just continuing to apply the pressure and waiting for the result.”
That defensive mindset leads to numerous transition opportunities, which turned the tide in Klukwan’s favor in the first half. Shull said that in nearly 20 years of playing with Klukwan in Gold Medal, this is the best transition play he’s seen from the team.
The contest began with teams trading baskets, and Filcom actually held a narrow lead midway through the first half. Then Klukwan took over.
Klukwan went on a 20-4 run, doing much of its damage in transition. Though it’s been a while since they suited up together in high school, the players proved they can still play at breakneck speed.
“We’ve been playing in this tournament for 20 years together,” Shull said. “I feel pretty lucky to be 40 and still be running hard and sweating and having a good time.”
The excitement was clear on the Klukwan players’ faces, both on the court and in huddles during timeouts. They constantly joked back and forth with each other, whether it was about how one player had a loose ball bounce off his head or another player running on his tiptoes.
At the same time, Klukwan is taking the tournament seriously, and the players never allowed themselves to be too comfortable, even when the lead ballooned to 20 points Monday.
“You’ve got to figure, with Gold Medal basketball, you’re gonna get everybody’s A game,” Shull said. “We knew they were gonna make a push. They’re a good team, so we were ready to fight through it a little bit.”
They’ll look to continue that mindset into the next game of the winner’s bracket, which will take place at 9 p.m. Thursday, where Klukwan will face the winner of Monday night’s game between Yakutat and Metlakatla.
