The last 3-pointer James Gang made in Wednesday’s C Bracket contest against Yakutat was less than a minute into the second half.
From that point on, the Juneau squad relied on their passing and post moves to outlast Yakutat in their 70-62 win. In the Master’s Bracket, Kake beat Sitka 67-51 as Nick Davis and Rick Austin scored 13 points apiece for the winning team.
James Gang plays the winner of a matchup between Filcom and Hoonah in the C Bracket quarterfinals Thursday at 12:30 p.m. Kake’s Masters team plays either Hoonah or Angoon on Friday.
“We’re a little bit of an older team as you acknowledged, but we tried to keep the legs fresh by getting those subs in early,” said James Gang player Sean Joslyn. “In the second half is when we usually make our move.”
Trailing by six points, the James Gang used a nine-point scoring run in six minutes to take control of the game.
“Some games we do hit a lot 3-pointers but for some reason this tournament we haven’t been; we’ve been really unlucky. We’ve probably been shooting 20 percent out there,” Joslyn said. “So when that happens we have to be ready to put our hard helmets on and go inside and clock in and that’s what we had to do today again.”
•Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nolin.ainsworth@juneauempire.com.
