Point Hope boys and girls teams earn conference tournament titles

Even though the Great Alaska Conference 2A high school basketball tournament took place at Grace Christian High School in Anchorage, the gymnasium was so jampacked with family and friends of the Tikigaq Harpooners that it might as well have been played in Point Hope.

“It cost an arm and a leg just flying from Point Hope to here,” Tikigaq School boys coach Teddy Frankson Jr. said. “That’s why they’re loud and proud. A lot of them are all past basketball players so they know what it feels like to work hard for Point Hope and play hard for Tikigaq.”

The small community with a population of roughly 600 showed out in force on Friday night to support the boys and girls teams on their quest to reach the state tournament.

“All of them travel all the way here just to watch us play,” junior Joelian Lane said. “Tikigaq is one.”

They cheered on the Harpooners as both the boys and girls teams punched their tickets to state tournament next by securing regional titles over the Unalaska Raiders.

The defending 2A state championship boys team used an explosive offensive outing led by junior Joelian Lane who accounted for nearly half of their points by dropping a game-high 37 points in the 78-57 victory.

“I was thinking nobody could stop me,” Lane said. “I went all in with my teammates hyping me up and we got the job done.”

He drained four field goals from behind the arc, made one free throw, and scored the vast majority of his other 24 points from the field on layups that were assisted by team’s second leading scorer, senior Kollin Tuzroyluk.

“(Tuzroyluk) was driving hard and Lane was drifting and finding the open spots and capitalizing on those looks all night,” Frankson Jr. said.

The championship marked the team’s third straight season finishing first in the conference tournament. The last time the Harpooners didn’t win the Great Alaska conference was in the 2018-2019 season when they still went on to win the 2A state championship.

“I haven’t lost at regionals my entire high school career and it feels great,” Lane said. “We got a lot of young guys on our team and I didn’t expect to win but we got it done.”

While the boys overwhelmed the Raiders with offense, the girls smothered their opponents with a suffocating defense that was highlighted by their ferocious full-court press in a 54-39 victory.

“It was just teamwork and working together in the rotations and I think that was what got us the win yesterday and today,” junior Jadyn Lane said.

They were led in scoring by junior Virginia Teayoumeak who was a powerful presence in the post and finished with a game-high 18 points, all of which came on layups. The only other Harpooner to reach double digits in scoring was freshman Jennifer Nash with 15 points.

“I have a really young team with no seniors. I’m blessed to have them and they’re just peaking at the right time,” Tikigaq girls coach Ramona Rock said.

This weekend, the Harpooners boys will be look to defend their state title and win their third in the last four years while the girls will be looking to win their first since 2019 and third in the last five years.

“We’re a pretty tight knit community,” Assistant girls coach and AABC Hall of Fame inductee, Rex Rock Sr. said. “When we go whaling, we work as one and we know it is important to come together support the kids like this.”