Watching Haines in the second quarter of the Juneau Lions Club Gold Medal B Bracket championship game Saturday night, one would think they were trying to mount a comeback.<\/p>\n
Hurried ball and player movement and lots of 3-point shots, Haines played like it needed to put up points in a hurry.<\/p>\n
Nope.<\/p>\n
After taking a single-digit first quarter lead, Haines sought to put the game away in the second quarter. The plan worked well. Thanks to a 19-point halftime advantage, they were able to sustain a fourth-quarter Klukwan push and win 83-66.<\/p>\n
It was the fourth win of the tournament for Haines and the eighth in a row at the Gold Medal tournament. Haines won the B Bracket championship last year, too.<\/p>\n
“We’ve all played so much together, when we get back together, it takes about a game and we start gelling,” said Haines guard Kyle Rush, the B Bracket MVP. “It’s such a great opportunity to be able to play in a tournament like this where you actually have fans coming and there is passion. It’s hard not to give it just everything you got and be excited about being here.”<\/p>\n
Rush led the way for Haines with 21 points, including 16 in the first half. Kyle Fossman and Tyler Healy scored 15 points apiece.<\/p>\n
Klukwan’s Austin Shoemaker scored a team-high 14 points while Kaleb Tompkins and Jacob Hotch each had 12 points.<\/p>\n
After going down 19 points at halftime, Klukwan knew it needed to play smarter defense.<\/p>\n
“We weren’t making enough stops, we weren’t talking to each other enough and it was killing us in the first half,” Hotch said.<\/p>\n
So after getting outscored 30-16 in the second quarter, Klukwan upped its defensive intensity in the third. That paid off because they held Haines scoreless through the first four minutes of the quarter while going on a 10-2 run.<\/p>\n
Haines called a timeout at the 5 minutes, 54 seconds mark, and Healy picked up his play, creating turnovers and scoring the final five points in the quarter.<\/p>\n
The score was 61-47 going into the fourth quarter, but Klukwan kept up its attack.<\/p>\n
Tompkins cut the lead to six, the lowest it had been since the first quarter, with two free throws at 6:14 of the fourth. He then blocked Fossman on the other end, but the play seemed to have the opposite of the normal effect.<\/p>\n
The 2017 B Bracket MVP went on a quick five-point scoring surge to put Haines back up double figures.<\/p>\n
\nHaines\u2019 Kyle Fossman talks about the keys to winning in the #2018GoldMedal<\/a> championship game over Klukwan. Haines defeated Klukwan 83-66 for their second consecutive B Bracket title. pic.twitter.com\/OzN9eySreb<\/a><\/p>\n