The Juneau Empire’s expanded coverage of the Juneau Lions Club 74th Gold Medal Basketball Tournament is made possible by Sealaska Corp. Thanks to this sponsorship, this article —and all of this year’s Gold Medal coverage — is available online without a subscription to the Empire.
Hoonah and Angoon faced off for a C Bracket elimination game on Thursday amid the the fifth day of the Gold Medal basketball tournament in the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé gymnasium.
The game started off relatively slow with scores staying close in the first quarter, but by the second quarter Hoonah had managed to pull ahead by 30 points, and the lead would continue to grow for a 79-33 finish, eliminating Angoon from the tournament.
Hoonah’s Travis Dybdahl, a Gold Medal hall of famer, said the team’s dominant performance was due to a change up and reevaluation in the team’s approach.
“When we lost our second game we had to make an adjustment,” Dybdahl said. “We were doing too much isolation ball and not enough movement, not enough guys getting touches, so we just had to run a little motion and get some screen action going and I think you see the results. It’s a lot of easy buckets, guys looking for each other, playing as a team, you can just feel the energy when we’re gelling. It’s picked way up and we’re just riding that high right now.”
Arthur Campbell led in scoring for Hoonah with 12 points and for Angoon’s Len Johnson put up a game-high 18 points.
Hoonah will now go on to play another game at 6 p.m. on Thursday.
Hoonah, which has accrued 27 Gold Medal titles over the years, last finished on top of the C Bracket in 2013. The town’s most recent title came in the Masters Bracket in 2017.
• Contact reporter Jonson Kuhn at jonson.kuhn@juneauempire.com.
