Seldovia Sea Otters Shine at March Madness Alaska State Championship

by Jenny Chissus

After a full night of heavy snow, the roads were crazy, and the parking lot at South Anchorage High hadn’t been plowed and was bathed in over 18 inches of snow!  I think it was a big surprise to the entire city to see that kind of build up – but we were all there and ready to go and the first games started on time!

Seldovia vs Selawik (DOUBLE Overtime Stats not available)- click to view full size

Our first game was on the 15th at 8:00am against Selawik and it was an extremely exciting game.  The lead went back and forth, and at the end of the fourth quarter they were tied at 66 and so into overtime we went.  Those four minutes were just as exciting, and resulted in a tie again!  But at the end of the second overtime, our Sea Otters pulled ahead to win the game – Sea Otters 81 and Selawik 76!  Double overtime!   A very, edge of your seat, nail biting game!   In commenting about how the guys felt about their first win, Janes replied “They were a little stunned, they had the talent, but their nerves were the challenge, and they truly overcame some obstacles and were able to eek out a win, and in the second overtime they really put the pressure on, and were able to outscore the other team, so that was good!”  Being in the stands cheering, it was fun to be there to support our team with a great turnout of Seldovians for that first game – in spite of the weather and the distance from Seldovia!  The image above is of the first part of the game – up to the initial tie, the rest of the game’s stats were not available on line.

Seldovia vs Yakutat – click to view full size

Our second game was against Yakutat, and the guys were pretty thrilled to be playing in the Sullivan Arena yesterday at 11:30am.  One of our guys big goals was to play in the Sullivan Arena, and they achieved that!   We played on Court 2, and Mark exclaimed “Yakutat has a pretty big team, and one of their players was actually rated All-State for Region 1A, so the guys knew it was going to be a tough fight for the win.”   This was a very close game – all the way through, until the 4th quarter when Seldovia took the lead for good!  Seldovia Sea Otters won the game, 55 to Yakutat’s 47.

Tonight they will play Toksook Bay at 7:00pm, who is a fast and physical team that will be shooting a lot of 3 pointers – so this game will be a challenge.  Coach Janes stated that he has a lot of confidence in his team, their shooting abilities, rebounding acquisitions, sense of predicting the other player’s actions and the team obviously wants to do their best, and make the most of this time on the court.

GOOD LUCK SELDOVIA SEA OTTERS!!!

Mark’s highlight at this point has been the guys ability to improve as they go, they are all doing their best, and enjoying the competition!  The made their first goal – to play in the Sullivan Arena.  What’s their next goal?  They are looking forward to playing on the Championship Court at the Sullivan Arena tomorrow!

Come and see the game tonight – 7:00pm at the Sullivan Arena!