Klawock girls nip Hoonah 34-33 for Region V 1A title

Klawock Chieftains junior Keira Sanderson hit a shot in the lane with six seconds left for the final points in a 34-33 win over the Hoonah Braves on Friday in the Alaska Airlines Region V 1A Girls Basketball Tournament Championship game at the Thunder Mountain Middle School gymnasium.

The win secured the fifth Region V title in a row for seniors Lea Armour and Kaiya Marvin.

“I feel great,” an exhausted Armour said moments after the game ended. “You know, I’ve won regions five times in a row since my eighth-grade year, it feels awesome. Five times! Yeah, it feels amazing. I couldn’t have done it without this amazing team. You know, they put so much effort into this whole season. I’m just unbelievably grateful for this. Winning in eighth grade was kind of a COVID year so it wasn’t much but this one tops them all.”

Six seconds is a long time and pressure defense by Klawock forced the Hoonah inbounds pass to be mishandled and turned over.

Hoonah fouled Klawock eighth grader Jayla Edenshaw and rebounded her missed free throw, called timeout and set up a last-second heave that Klawock senior Lea Armour tipped away and the buzzer sounded.

“I am so proud of my teammates,” Armour said. “You know, we have three eighth graders. A lot of them are super young. So I am just so proud of them for just playing through it and just doing an amazing job.”

When Hoonah Braves junior Paige Woitte hit a shot past the arc with 13 seconds left to play for a 33-32 lead the chance for a five-peat for Klawock’s Armour and Marvin looked in jeopardy.

Hoonah had been playing a stifling full-court defense so getting the ball upcourt quickly fell into Armour’s hands, and she drove through traffic for a shot that Sanderson gathered and lifted into the basket.

“I am so over-stimulated right now,” Marvin said after the game. She played with a cold through the tournament, but was still a force inside. “I feel great and I’m so happy we pulled through and did it. This feels so much better than any of the others because we came into the season very equal with everybody. So it feels so good that we pulled it off.”

The win seemed improbable in the first half as Armour was whistled for her third foul with just over four minutes of action in the first quarter and she picked up her fourth foul with 2:41 left in the second quarter.

To further complicate Klawock’s six-player rotation Marvin picked up her third foul with 5:56 left in the second quarter and freshman AnaRose Peratrovich was whistled for her fourth foul with 58 seconds left in the first half. Marvin would earn her fourth foul at the start of the third quarter so all three would be playing the final minutes in danger of being expelled from the game for good.

The game was deadlocked at 10-10 at the half.

Klawock held an 8-5 first quarter lead and Hoonah outscored Klawock 5-2 in the second.

Hoonah sophomores Jora Savland and Easton Ross put the Braves on top 14-10 in the opening minutes of the second half and after Klawock’s Marvin hit to close to 14-12, Ross put Hoonah up 16-12.

When the Chieftains’ Marvin went to the bench with four fouls Hoonah’s Woitte would score three times in a row, with just one answer from Klawock’s Amour, and the Braves led 22-14.

Marvin hit a free throw to trail 22-15 and Hoonah freshman Jenna Jack pushed the advantage back to 24-15.

Edenshaw hit a tough drive to pull to 24-17 and Armour found space past the arc to close Klawock to 24-20 as the third quarter ended.

Marvin said they taught this year’s class of eighth graders, “To hold their heads up high and let them know that it is just a game and it’s okay to mess up sometimes.”

Klawock’s Armour opened the fourth quarter with a shot past the arc to close to 24-23 and Marvin gave the Chieftains a 25-24 advantage with a score inside, and then hit a free throw to lead 26-24.

Hoonah’s Woitte hit from past the arc to get the Braves back on top 27-26.

After Klawock’s Marvin hit inside to regain the lead 28-27, Hoonah’s Savland notched a shot from the arc for a 30-28 lead with two minutes remaining in the game.

Klawock eighth grader Alli Demmert hit a nice shot near the key to tie the game 30-30 with just over a minute left and Sanders put the Chieftains up 32-30 with just under a minute remaining.

That forced a Hoonah timeout. The Braves drew up a play that had Woitte get free and hit the deep shot that gave them the 33-22 lead with 13 seconds to play, and set the stage for Klawock’s Armour to drive and Sanderson to follow the miss for the Chieftains’ win.

“Oh, I’m on top of the world,” Klawock coach Joseph Sanderson said. “That was amazing. That was good basketball. Three eighth graders, a couple ninth graders, a sophomore, it was tough. They play hard, they listen in practice, they do what they’re told. You know, they take criticism very well so they were a big, big help…but our senior leadership, Kaia and Lea, they are excellent. They are always positive with all the younger players. They take care of them. They teach them and it just helps a lot. It is just tremendous.”

Marvin led Klawock with 14 points, Armour added eight, Edenshaw, Demmert and Sanderson four each.

The Chieftains hit 2-12 at the charity stripe, the Braves 6-16.

Woitte led Hoonah with 14 points, Savland nine, Ross five, Jack three and freshman Nevaeh Campbell two.

Klawock will play in the March Madness Alaska 2025 1A/2A Basketball State Championships March 12-15 at Anchorage’s Alaska Airlines Center.

Hoonah can qualify for state with a win in the runner-up game to state at 7:30 p.m. Saturday against the winner of Saturday’s early elimination game between Skagway and Kake.

• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.