Kake picked up their defensive effort in the second half.

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Craig, or Klawock, or Prince of Wales…just three names for a team that was told by Gold Medal this year they had to pick a town and keep the roster local.

Craig put a talented roster on the floor in a 72-18 win over Kake and will face Yakutat at 5:30 p.m. Monday.

“I think they just wanted to keep it in the villages,” Craig player, coach, mentor Tina Steffin said. “They had warned me last year I would have to choose Craig or Klawock. We came as Prince of Wales the last two years.”

Craig’s Nani Weimer shoots against Kake during Women’s Bracket action Sunday at the 76th Annual Juneau Lions Club Gold Medal Basketball Tournament in Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé’s George Houston Gymnasium. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire)
Craig’s Nani Weimer shoots against Kake during Women’s Bracket action Sunday at the 76th Annual Juneau Lions Club Gold Medal Basketball Tournament in Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé’s George Houston Gymnasium. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire)

And Prince of Wales won the last two women’s titles.

“We lost the Holien girls, they didn’t have any ties to Craig,” Steffin said. “They were bummed and went to Nashville, but they would rather be here playing basketball instead…most everybody else we can tie back to Craig…”

Kake did not let up through the entire game despite trailing throughout and by an increasing number.

“We’re learning how to gel together, growing and winning and competing,” Kake coach Carson Viles said. “When you are down big in a game you’ve got to take it a possession at a time and just stay country wise email marketing list focused and not let the circumstances grind you down or affect you.”


“I felt like it picked up,” Viles said. “Nerves calming down a bit. We have some players who got a little nervy there in the first half, so I think we calmed down a bit. I was definitely happy with our effort and communication in the second half. We’re trying to do Kake proud for sure so we’re going to come out and try to get a W next game.”

Craig advances to play Yakutat Monday at 5:30 p.m. Yakutat had a bye. Kake will play an elimination game on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m.

•••••

Sunday’s nightcap game featured an interesting mix of youth and veterans as Hoonah passed the century mark on the score clock with a 105-73 win over Klawock.

“Oh man this first win means everything,” Hoonah coach Travis Dybdahl said. “We’re bringing a couple new guys into this thing. We had a few days of practice, but you never know if it is going to turn out good, if we’ll be able to run plays correctly but they bought in right away. And so it was easy. We put some things in that most programs run as youth so it wasn’t too hard to say ‘hey, we’re going to do a press, it’s going to be this way.’ Everyone just nodded their head and said ‘yep, we got it.’ To yeah, it was pretty exciting….we’ve got a lot of young players, some good solid veterans and just everybody is humble. There are no egos, and I did that by design. I wanted to gel them right now while they are young, get them into that team menatlity. They come from good programs…Mt. Edgecumbe, JD, you name it, so they are used to playing as a team. But yeah, we’re trying to build a long-term contender for sure.”