Mt. Edgecumbe junior Guy Goldberry drives to the basket during the Braves’ 56-50 victory over the Sitka Wolves in the Boys 3A state basketball tournament at the Alaska Airlines Center on Thursday, March 19, 2026. (Bill Roth / ADN)

It’s not uncommon for high school basketball teams from the same region to square off multiple times before the postseason rolls around. Then there’s the rivalry between Mt. Edgecumbe and Sitka, which featured six matchups before the Alaska State 3A Basketball Tournament got underway, setting the stage for a seventh.

Both schools are located in the same Southeast town and are separated by just 2.1 miles. The top-seeded Braves had won five of the first six meetings, including the Eastern Conference title game two weeks ago.

But in Thursday night’s semifinal faceoff at the Alaska Airlines Center, the Braves had to rally in the second half to avoid being upset by the feisty fourth-seeded Wolves, notching a gritty 56-50 win to advance to the title game.

“It’s kind of hard to beat a team six times, so it feels good to go out there and capitalize and do what we do,” junior guard Kaden Herrmann said. “Southeast usually doesn’t get recognition for basketball, so it feels good to put them on the map.”

In order to recover from an uncharacteristically slow start that saw them trail 20-16 at halftime, first-year head coach Marshall Vest believes “it took everything” for the Braves to mount their comeback.

“(We) had to bounce back, had to keep fighting,” he said. “They played a great game, especially their first half. They came out strong, we had to make some adjustments on the defensive end and then really I just thought offensively, we had to score the ball.”

Mt. Edgecumbe junior Guy Goldsberry defends as Sitka senior Trey Johnson drives to the basket during the Boys 3A state basketball tournament at the Alaska Airlines Center on Thursday, March 19, 2026. The Braves defeated the Wolves 56-50 to advance to the finals on Saturday. (Bill Roth / ADN)

For a team that is accustomed to averaging 70 points a game, to not even be a quarter of the way there at halftime was stunning and had the look of another classic March Madness upset.

“I told them at half, I’m not mad, I’m not tripping about the shots, they’re going to fall, we just have to stay together and keep playing hard,” Vest said. “I’m a big believer that if we play our style of basketball, at some point and time in the game, we’ll get our big break, and that’s kind of what happened.”

Sitka still held a narrow three-point lead at the end of the third quarter, but it quickly faded after Mt. Edgecumbe opened the fourth quarter red-hot with a 12-2 run to retake the lead.

“We go on those runs all year long and we just keep pushing, and our defense at some point will help us create some offense, and it just gives us a spark too,” Vest said. “You can feel that momentum shift and we just keep running with it.”

Even though the Braves got the better of the Wolves more often than not in their previous six matchups, they came into the seventh expecting a fight — and got one.

“None of those games matter, conference championship doesn’t matter, it came down to tonight and that’s what our mindset was,” Vest said. “We’ve seen them, they’re hungry, they wanted revenge, but at the end of the day, it’s just one game right here, and that’s where we were at.”

The win was especially meaningful for returning players like Herrmann, who were on last year’s Mt. Edgecumbe team that narrowly fell to Sitka in last year’s semifinals and were seeking to return the favor. On Thursday night, he received player of the game honors after leading the Braves with 26 points.

“That’s what we wanted to do,” he said. “It’s just a surreal feeling. … We’re just looking to go out there on Saturday and win the whole thing.”

Barrow pulls away late to knock off Nome-Beltz

As was the case for their female counterparts earlier in the evening, the third-seeded Whalers bested a multi-time reigning state champion to advance to the finals.

Their game also played out in a similar fashion, with them emerging victorious by a double-digit margin of 63-50. Not only did the triumph thwart the second-seeded Nanooks’ chances at a three-peat, it meant that the Barrow boys would be back in the state title game for the first time since 2018.

“This is a dream,” junior Alex Fruean said. “It means a lot to us in the community. We had our ups and downs as a team for the boys. … Everybody doubted us this whole season. It was always Nome, Nome, Nome this, Nome that so we showed them today and proved to them today why we’re the best team in 3A and we’re coming for that (championship) on Saturday.”

The two teams squared off three times during the regular season with Barrow winning the first matchup by nearly 30 points but falling in the next two by narrow margins of nine points or fewer.

“We’ve been prepping for it all year and the boys have been wanting it, and today they finally showed that they were able to reach the goal that we wanted to achieve,” Barrow head coach Makana Ahgeak said. “We’ve got just one more game on Saturday and it’s win or go home.”

After so many years of early round exits, the Whalers have been steadily building to this moment and determined to not let it go to waste.

“A couple of us on the coaching staff made it to the state championship and won a championship, so we know how it feels, but to experience it as a first-year head coach and having all the boys experience it for the first time is amazing,” Ahgeak said.

Ending the program’s title game appearance drought is an accomplishment that Ahgeak believes will help them continue to build and get more kids interested in the sport in their community.

“It gives these seniors a good feeling that they’ve been working all four years and it will pay off,” Ahgeak said.

The Whalers came out hot with a 7-0 run to start the game, all of which came from Fruean, and was highlighted by a furious dunk off a fast break and a deep 3-pointer from the college line. He received player of the game recognition after finishing as the team’s leading scorer with a game-high 37 points, which included four 3-pointers and going 15-of-20 on free throws.

“He probably could’ve had 40 if he didn’t miss his free throws,” Ahgeak said. “He kept it going for sure, good ball security. He was out there playing, hustling, trying to do it all.”

The aspect of Fruean’s performance that impressed him the most was his vastly improved effort on the defensive end of the court.

“Normally where he struggles is wanting to play defense but today he wanted it and was in it,” Ahgeak said.

All season, Fruean shared that they’ve been preaching “it’s we, not just me” so they pushed each other hard in practice every day and he believes that is what drove them to this point and can continue to propel them the rest of the way.

“We did it together on the court, off the court (and) with team bonding and all that,” he said. “We made it.”

It’s been exactly a decade since the last time Barrow had two teams in the finals as both Whalers squad made it to the championship games in 2016 and returned to Utqiagvik with the trophies.

“It’s great,” Ahgeak said. “The community loves it. We give all thanks to the community. The only real way is by traveling by plane in and out of Barrow, other than an ice road that is only open for about two to three months. The fact that we have a ton of the community here, it’s really a blessing.”

The boys team’s first game of the tournament took place in the auxiliary gym at the Alaska Airlines Center, and there were so many Barrow fans trying to cram into the smaller venue that security had to shut the doors to prevent overflow.

“We have a lot of Barrow love and it’s great,” Ahgeak said.

3A boys state tournament

At Alaska Airlines Center

Semifinals

Thursday

No. 1 Mt. Edgecumbe 56, No. 4 Sitka 50

No. 3 Barrow 63, No. 2 Nome-Beltz 50

Saturday

Third/Fifth place

Sitka vs. Nome-Beltz, 8 a.m. in auxiliary gym

Fourth/Sixth place

Delta vs. Kenai Central, 9:30 a.m. in main gym

Finals

Barrow vs. Mt. Edgecumbe, 3 p.m. in main gym