For the first five minutes of Saturday's Class 2A boys state basketball championship game, Klawock's Rick Carle and Point Hope's Ebrulik Frankson waged an individual scoring battle, each accounting for their team's first eight points.
Then the rest of the Harpooners arrived to help Frankson out. Four others joined him in the scoring column during a decisive first-half run that gave Point Hope control on its way to a 71-58 victory over Klawock at Sullivan Arena.
Carle finished with a game-high 33 points for Klawock, but it wasn't enough to keep Point Hope from defending its title.
"He's a great player. Holy smoke, he's so strong," Point Hope coach Rex Rock Sr. said of Carle. "But we kept sending bodies after him. One man can't beat a team."
Especially this team, filled with dynamic playmakers who are also disciplined on offense and defense. A number of beautiful bounce passes hit cutting players for easy baskets, and the Harpooners were shooting almost 50 percent for most of the game until cooling off late.
Frankson, a junior guard, started the game by drilling a pair of 3-pointers and hitting a pretty baseline floater. He finished with team highs of 25 points, seven rebounds and four steals.
"I was so pumped up. I was ready to go," Frankson said. "From the first day of the season I've been ready to go."
After beating Noorvik 63-54 for the state title last year, the Harpooners early this season set a goal to become the first team to repeat as the boys 2A champion since Abbott Loop -- which later merged with Muldoon Christian to become Heritage Christian -- won in 1989 and 1990.
"We knew it from the start, we knew it from the bottom of the hearts that we could win," Frankson said. "We were targets, but we worked as a team. We didn't play for ourselves, we played for the team."
After trailing 14-12 late in the first quarter, Point Hope went on a 17-2 run filled with its normal array of outstanding defensive plays, highlight-reel passes and stellar 3-point shooting.
"It was hard work at the beginning, but we got up a little, and we caught on fire," said Zacharia Lane, a senior guard who finished with 20 points. "It feels great."
The Harpooners pushed their lead to 21 points early in the fourth quarter at 57-36 before Klawock made a late surge, getting as close as 10 points.
"They just came out a little more aggressive than us. Their defense was tremendous. We tried to be patient, but it was hard to set up our offense," Klawock coach James Carle said. "I'm really proud of my boys, they played hard."
Rick Carle, a junior guard, added 12 rebounds and four assists to go with his 33 points for the Chieftains. He was 17 of 19 from the free-throw line, drawing fouls with his aggressive drives.
"He's a really nice player. He can shoot and drive," Lane said.
Klawock's other main weapon, junior forward Deion Jackson, added 14 points and seven rebounds. The 6-2 Jackson called for the ball often on the offensive end, but his teammates weren't able to get him the ball inside very frequently. He still made his presence felt on defense with five big blocks.
Junior point guard Adam Sage added 12 points for the Harpooners and dished nine assists, including five in the first quarter. Point Hope had 18 assists on 26 baskets.
Klawock and Point Hope are located about as far apart as possible for two places in the same state. Klawock is located in the far Southeast, more than 1,400 miles from Point Hope's location on Alaska's northwest shore. The distance is the same as that from Anchorage to Seattle, New York to Dallas or London to Moscow.
Both schools share a love for basketball, however, and expect to be back again next year.
The Harpooners are hoping for a three-peat, and Klawock wouldn't mind facing them again.
"We'll be back, we will definitely be back," said James Carle, whose top two players are both juniors.
ASAA/First National Bank Alaska
State Basketball Championships
Point Hope 16 18 19 18 -- 71
Klawock 14 8 14 22 -- 58
Point Hope -- Sage 12, J. Lane 4, Frankson 25, Z. Lane 20, Rock 2.
Klawock -- Carle 33, Mills 3, Busse 2, Huffine 6, Jackson 14.
Tri-Valley 40, Cook Inlet 33
The Viking Warriors of Tri-Valley stormed the Academy on Saturday and downed the Eagles 40-33 in the 2A boys third-place game.
Forest Shreeve led Tri-Valley with 15 points and 14 rebounds. Ryan Scholten added 10 points and Jonathan Talerico had six of the team's 17 steals.
Matthew Moffis led CIA with 15 points.
Tri-Valley 9 13 11 7 -- 40
Cook Inlet Academy 12 5 9 7 -- 33
Tri-Valley -- J. Talerico 4, A. Telrico 7, Shreeve 15, Scholten 10, Berg 4.
Cook Inlet Academy -- Grinestaff 2, Munn 8, Holly 2, Powers 6, Moffis 15.
Chevak 52, Ninilchik 47
The Chevak Comets shot past Ninilchik in the 2A boys fourth-place contest, earning a 52-47 win behind a scoring surge by Conor Ferguson.
Ferguson hit 7 of 9 field-goal attempts and scored a game-high 19 points for the Comets. Cameron Olson and Brian Andrews each added 11 points.
Sam Bennett paced the Ninilchik attack with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Hunter Cooper added 10 points.
Ninilchik 12 11 6 18 -- 47
Chevak 11 17 9 15 -- 52
Ninilchik -- Cooper 10, Je. Klapak 8, Goins 9, S. Bennett 13, Wheeler 6, Q. Bennett 1.
Chevak -- Olson 11, Lake 2, Ferguson 19, Andrews 11, Paniyak 7, Q. Bennett.
2A boys all-tourney
2A Boys All-Tournament Team
Jefferson Klapak, Ninilchik
David Reischach, CIA
Andrew Talerico, Tri-Valley
Ebrulik Frankson, Point Hope
Deion Jackson, Klawock
Ryan Scholten, Tri-Valley
Zacharia Lane, Point Hope
Conor Ferguson, Chevak
Rick Carle, Klawock
Adam Sage, Point Hope
By RICHARD LARSON
rlarson@adn.com