The Petersburg High School basketball teams played their rivals for a second time this season when the Petersburg Vikings took on the Wolves for Wrangell’s homecoming games. Both coaches describe the away games as competitive and physical, and they both say their players have improved enormously in the last couple of months
Lady Vikings coach Matt Pawuk said the girls played their best game of the season against Wrangell on Friday. He said he nearly lost his voice because he was cheering the team on so enthusiastically.
“I can get a little animated on the sideline, but mostly it’s when I’m just excited by what, what the girls are doing out on the floor,” he said. “They’re a fun team to watch when they’re clicking.”
Pawuk said he was surprised by how much progress the team had made. It’s only the second conference game the girls have won all season.
He said the Lady Vikings were focused from the start on Friday.
“We were ready to go from the very opening tip, and that’s been a common theme this year – that we seem to get off to a slow start and let other teams get an early lead, and then we have to kind of scratch and claw our way back into the game,” he said. “And we didn’t have to do that this time.”
He said the Wrangell Lady Wolves were playing hard, aggressive basketball, but the Lady Vikings matched their opponents.
“We did a great job of not letting the pressure get to us and kind of attacking their pressure,” he said. “That’s really the only way to get a team to back off is, if you’re aggressive, right back at them. If you kind of shy away from it, then it works to their advantage.”
Petersburg won 43 to 32.
But the next night was a different story. Pawuk said the Lady Wolves took their aggressive basketball to another level – and refs weren’t calling a lot of fouls on either team.
“The tone was set pretty early,” he said. “There were a couple plays where I felt like a whistle could have been blown and wasn’t, and we were just not quite ready for how physical the refs were going to let the game be played.”
Pawuk said his team is a little quicker than the Wrangell Wolves – but they’re also smaller. He said that made it hard to match Wrangell’s level of physicality. They lost 34 to 41.
Petersburg’s boys coach Rick Brock said the Vikings also played a great game on Friday. He said the Wolves put a lot of pressure on the Vikings, but they were unfazed. The score was close for most of the game, but a few final Vikings shots didn’t make it in the basket and they lost 42 to 50.
But just like the girls, the next night was a whole different ball game.
“Saturday was senior night and homecoming night for them, and they ratcheted up their defensive intensity and physicality, and we did not respond very well to it,” he said. “We had a hard time getting any semblance of an offense in the second quarter.”
He said the team fought back hard in the second half, but was never able to close the gap, losing 33 to 61.
But Brock said he’s proud of his team, especially looking back at the season-wide arc.
“I really have enjoyed working with this group,” he said. “They show up every day. Great attitudes, work hard.”
He said that the Vikings have only won a handful of games this season – all non-conference – which can make it hard for players to keep a positive attitude. But he said the Vikings have proven they’re a resilient bunch.
“A big part of coaching for me is seeing the improvement individually, but then as a team, and then also watching these guys really become brothers,” he said.
And he said even though they’re 5th out of five going into the regional tournament, the Vikings shouldn’t be underestimated.
“We’re playing our best basketball right now,” he said. “We’ve come really close to all of these teams, some of the things that we were doing earlier to help the other team beat us, we’re not doing now. So we’re going to go in loose and optimistic and just take it one game at a time.”
Lady Vikings coach Pawuk said the girls are playing their best basketball of the season too. He said it’s anybody’s guess which two of the five Southeast teams will end up heading to the state tournament in Anchorage.
The region V tournament takes place in Ketchikan next week. KFSK will air Viking and Lady Viking games live.
The JV Vikings also played in Wrangell last weekend – their final games of the season. The JV Lady Viking beat the JV Lady Wolves on Friday, 52-31, and Saturday 38-29. The JV Vikings lost to Wrangell’s JV team on Friday, 38 to 47, and Saturday 36 to 64.
