Haines Takes the IIIA Boys State Title!

Yesterday was a great day for Haines Basketball!

The game was played on KHNS live, and also on channel 3 TV.  The ultimate experience in Haines was listening to the radio while watching the game live (except for the two seconds of synch difference.

Here’s a clip from the ADN.

I watched the game live at the Fire Department with the Badgleys, Bachmans, and Stouts.  It was a rip-rourling good time for us.  And, I’m afraid to say, I lost my voice yelling & jumping into the air after great plays.  Heritage played a very controlled game and took us out of our transition game for the first quarter or so but for some reason stayed with that type of tempo even near the end of the game when they were down ten with a few minutes remaining.

In many respects, it was TENSE game with so much on the line and yet so little scoring from either team.  They were playing tough defense on Kyle, and were able to get a surpising number of buckets down low in the paint before we were able to adjust our defensive coverage to seal up the gaps.  A few early time-outs gave tine for Coach Fossman toput a stop to that as did a few key blocked shots under the bucket. 

Haines had very few turnovers from the team in the game, and really looked like they stepped it up a notch in the tourney, and played very well.

It was really cool to see the boys playing live with such good video coverage.  They had nice floor coverage with two cameras, one on each end, then a regular high angle shot.  I’d rather not see the score all the time at the top of the screen and see the score game a little closer in, but hey, that’s nitpicking.   Really great camera work.

The announcers really didn’t do their homework on the teams (how could they really? with so many teams to potentially cover).  It’d be nice if they had season stats to rattle off during the color time, instead of taking about the inherent value of the 3 point line an dhow it changed the game (that was in the 80s fellas, it’s not really news anymore).  think it would be nice if each team that made it to the final four would provide summary season stats and brief bio of each player.  I think I’m going to buy a copy of the DVD of a few of the games. 

Ame, a monster on the boards, really gave us what we needed inside!  Ame had a VERY impressive block on their tall post player that kind of quieted him down for the rest of the game.  The guy really had a very quick catch and release and Ame got his number, so to speak and brought him down.  He had a few great post moves inside where he scored even while triple teamed.

Orion really earned his spot on the all-tourney team in the second half.  Heritage didn’t really seem to expect that Orion could take the ball into the paint and be productive, and were left with having to foul him to stop the inside shots. 

Of course one of the big things a team has to do when they play us is figure out what they’re going to do with Kyle.  They played good denial ball when Kyle didn’t have the ball, not giving Kyle really many looks at the basket, then they’d double up on him when he got the ball on the perimeter.  Of course it’s best if you can just get on top of Kyle and hold him down so he can’t move, but then the ref is likely to point his finger at you (see above).

Olsen really stepped up his game and was a considerable presence on the inside.  He played a solid game and was right in there mixing it up near the rim contesting shots and making room for himself.