Wrangell boys fall in emotional first game at state tournament

The Wrangell High School boys basketball team had every right to not compete Thursday in their opening game of the 2025 ASAA March Madness Alaska 1A/2A State Basketball Championships at Anchorage’s Alaska Airlines Center.

Early Sunday morning while the team was at the Southeast regional tournament in Ketchikan, Wrangell Coach Cody Angerman and the Wolves were informed his father, Southeast basketball icon and referee Fred Angerman Jr., had passed suddenly.

“It’s been a tough week for us,” Wrangell coach Cody Angerman said. “There’s a part of me that feels like they felt this added pressure and I tried to tell them that this is about playing for themselves, and trying to come out there and do as much as they can. It’s not an excuse. It’s just been real hard.”

Wearing warmups emblazoned with “Fast Freddy” and his number 12 on their backs the Wolves did just as the four-year starter, and 1975 graduate, for the Wrangell Wolves would have done. They took the court and they competed.

The Wolves trailed 4-0 early as the Seahawks opened with baskets by Emerson Cross and Noah Price. But Wrangell’s Trevyn Gillen hit past the arc and Daniel Harrison answered an inside basket by Seward with a tough shot of his own to trail 6-5.

Seward would close the quarter up 13-5 despite the pressure defense by Wrangell.

Seward opened the second quarter on a 6-0 run until Wrangell’s Boomhain Loucks hit past the arc to trail 19-8.

Seward’s Talon Lemme hit back-to-back shots past the arc for a 25-8 lead and it appeared Wrangell was out of the game. But the Wolves went on a 15-0 run that included a shot past the arc by Lucas Schneider, another past the arc by Keaton Gillen-Gadd, rebound scores by Harrison and Kyan Stead, another shot past the arc by Harrison, and a steal and score by Stead to trail 25-23.

Seward’s Emerson Cross would hit a shot past the arc at the buzzer for a 28-23 lead at the half.

Wrangell’s Harrison would score the first basket of the second half to close to 28-25. But the Wolves would only notch one more score in the stanza and trailed 40-27 after three quarters.

The Wolves cold spell extended well into the final stanza as they notched just three points in eight minutes and fell 57-30.

“We’ve been kind of a little bit out of rhythm with me not being around,” Wrangell coach Angerman said. “I don’t know, sometimes it’s just not your day and I think today wasn’t our day. We didn’t shoot the ball well, we turned the ball over and Seward shot the ball really well, they played really hard. We just didn’t do the things that, at any point did I feel that we deserved to win.”

“None of it, to me, really felt that good, basketball-wise. But as far as what the kids have done this season I don’t think it takes anything away…we’re still here and we’re still here to do the best we can possibly do. If we can pull out a couple wins here, whether it is on the wrong side of the bracket or not we still want to show that the reason why we came here to compete.”

Harrison led Wrangell with nine points, Stead added six, Loucks, Schneider, Gillen, Gillen-Gadd and Jackson Powers three each. Harrison had four rebounds, Gillen-Gadd three, Loucks, Stead and Aadyn Gillen one each. Harrison had two assists, Schneider and Stead one apiece.

The Wolves were 1-1 at the charity stripe, the Seahawks 6-12. Wrangell had 17 turnovers to match Seward’s 17. The Wolves had 20 rebounds and the Seahawks 28.

Lemme led Seward with 16 points, Mason Elhard added 13, Price eight, Cross six, Lane Peterson and Van Shank five apiece, Jack Lindquist and Elhard two apiece. Elhard led with six rebounds, Lindquist five, Cross and Shank four apiece.

“Being in Ketchikan when it happened was tough,” coach Angerman said of his father’s passing. “But at least I wasn’t far. The reason I am here, essentially talking it over with my family, them telling me that he would have wanted me here…and lots of other people too…I think this is what he would have wanted. I don’t think the result of this game has any bearing that they (the Wolves) should have won or they should have done anything like that. That’s another thing we tell them, that I don’t want them to feel that way because that is not what this is about…my dad was not undefeated in high school and neither are we.”

“Obviously our goal every year is to get up here and we did make it here and we still want to do the best we can. Is it in the back of my mind? Yeah, obviously. Did I want to win? Yes. Not even for my dad, it’s just the competitive nature that he instilled in me…he was a competitor, but he was humble about it, it was about his team, he was never a talker…and I think I was the same way on the court, we make our game do the talking. Either way, win or lose, that’s how I approach things.”

Wrangell will play in an 8 a.m. consolation game Friday, Seward advances to play in a 6:15 p.m. semifinal.

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