The Houston boys and Monroe Catholic girls earned Valdez Elks Tournament championships in impressive fashion Saturday night.
Powered by a high-octane offense, the Houston Hawks outscored host Valdez 42-20 in the second half on their way to a a 65-46 victory to take the boys crown.
In the girls tournament, the hot-shooting Rams jumped out to a big lead over Nome-Beltz and never looked back, cruising to a 61-22 victory in the championship game.
Valdez has hosted the Elks Tournament for 44 years, making it Alaska’s longest-running high school hoops tournament. “The Elks” has built a reputation as a premier event for mid-sized Alaskans schools looking to fine tune their teams ahead of the postseason.
The Houston boys are now 14-0 and look primed for a run at their first 3A state championship since 1991.
“We’re having fun and it feels like we’re being noticed for it,” said junior guard Cole Taylor.
Houston’s Cole Taylor turns the corner on a Valdez defender. Photo by Joe Prax.
The Monroe girls leave Valdez 12-1 on the season and looked sharp despite missing their best player, senior Katie Bast.
“We were tested in Valdez,” said Monroe girls head coach Bob Burcell, “In the final against Nome we played very well on both ends of the floor. I look forward to seeing if we can consistently play at that level.”
Monroe shot 48% from the field, including 7-for-18 (38%) from 3-point range. Sophomore Miranda Wilkerson was a perfect 5-for-5 from behind the arc and led the Rams in scoring with 15 points.
Houston, which averages over 70 points a game, started sluggish and found themselves in a nine-point hole early in the third quarter before getting things rolling.
Monroe’s Isa Bond. Photo by Joe Prax.
“After a pep talk from Coach Van Dussen we found ‘the force’ as coach likes to call it,” said Taylor, “Our intensity forced turnovers which turned into points.”
The Hawks, who harassed the Buccaneers into 17 turnovers while only committing three of their own, were led by 14 points apiece from Taylor and backcourt mate Hayden Howard.
For decades, the Elks tourney has connected small towns across the vast geographical expanse of Alaska (this year’s boys and girls field was represented by teams from Bethel, Nome, North Pole, Delta Junction, Houston, and Cordova).
When the Valdez Elks Lodge #2537 organized the first tournament back in 1977, Jimmy Carter was president, the first Star Wars movie had just been released, and longtime Valdez boys head coach Todd Wegner was on the Buccaneers roster.
Back then folks followed their high school teams on local radio, hanging on the words of well-known broadcasters like Dick Shellhorn and Carl Pulliam. Local papers would run stories and box scores the following day. The world has changed since then, but even in the era of live-streaming and instant information the Valdez Elks Tournament is still about community and quality hoops.
“The Elks is a great high school basketball tournament,” said Burcell, “Great atmosphere, good crowds, quality opponents.”
Cole Taylor’s father Rick and coach Ted Van Dussen, teammates on the ’91 Houston state championship team, competed at the Elks tourney back in the day. If you grew up in small town Alaska and you’re into hoops, chances are you have an Elks tourney story.
Girls championship action. Photo by Joe Prax.
For the residents of Valdez, the Elks tourney comes at a time, in mid February, when the seaside community at the end of the road is looking for some excitement to boost them through the winter doldrums.
“The Elks tournament is a long standing tradition that brings the town of Valdez together,” said former Valdez High star Carl Arts.
Arts, who led the Buccaneers to a state championship before an All-American career at the University of Alaska Anchorage that culminated with his jersey being retired, says the four Elks tourney championship jackets he received remain one of his most prized keepsakes.
“Playing in the tournament was always a highlight of the season,” said Arts.
Bart Hinkle contributed to this story.
Girls
Most Valuable Player
Shannel Kovalsk, Monroe
All-Tournament Team
Maggie Zaverl Monroe
Lourdes Lester, Delta
Madison Glynn, North Pole
Tiahna Guzma, North Pole
Emily Bitler, Houston
Ava Lieb, Bethel
Natallie Tobuk, Nome
Della Medlin, Nome
Kellie Miller, Nome
Kylie Gilbert, Valdez
Boys
Most Valuable Player
Payton Gage, Valdez
All-Tournament Team
Braden Cork, Houston
Cody Wyrick, Houston
Hayden Howard, Houston
Bryce Tucker, Valdez
Peter Crow, Bethel)
Trevor Mahler, Monroe
Jeff McCollough, Monroe
Caden Hanebuth, Nome
Dawson Schaeffer, Nome
Finn Gregg, Nome
Boys Elks Tourney championship action. Photo by Joe Prax.