Recalling her experience as a freshman on Ninilchik's 2006 Class 2A state championship team „ the last Wolverines squad to achieve that milestone „ Grace Ehlers said she celebrated as if she had played the entire game.
In reality, though, she didn't see a minute of action.
"I was so ecstatic," she said. "I was so proud of them and I freaked out."
Now she can be proud of herself.
Playing the entire game on Wednesday, the junior collected 11 points and 10 rebounds and senior Heidi Skjold added nine points and seven boards in leading Ninilchik past Point Hope, 45-34, and into the state championship game against defending champion Yakutat at 7:15 p.m. today at Sullivan Arena.
Behind an all-around effort, including eight steals, four assists and four rebounds from Lindsey Rohr and eight points apiece from Ashley Bartolowits and Lindsay Schnabl, the Wolverines are journeying into familiar territory.
Prior to last season's disappointing and uncharacteristic third-place finish, Ninilchik had claimed eight of the previous 11 state crowns, including a dominating run of five straight from 2000-04.
But with the departure of four starters from last year's squad, even coach Dan Leman didn't see this coming.
"Nope," he said with a laugh when asked if he thought a finals appearance was plausible. "I've got to be honest with you. I thought we'd have a good team, we'd have a lot of fun, we had great kids and we were just going to go out there. And as the season went on, we were a little better than what I had expected. But when we started the season, getting to the state championship game wasn't something we were thinking about every practice.
"It just was something that we weren't talking about and we didn't talk about it, we didn't think about it," Leman added. "They're a very focused group of girls thinking about what they had to do next week and not two or three months down the road."
Following a pedestrian 13-8 regular season campaign during which the Wolverines went 7-1 in Peninsula Conference action, Ninilchik captured the conference tournament title and knocked off Northway in the opening round of the state tournament on Tuesday.
Early on, though, Ehlers had her concerns.
"At the beginning of the year we weren't very strong and I didn't know how we were going to do. Honestly, I was kind of worried," she said, adding she was a little surprised this year's team made it further than last year's. "But we started working harder and just playing together as a team and I think that's mainly the thing. Because we don't have one or another outstanding shooter. We have to work really hard together and know each other and play hard together and I think that's basically what brought us over the edge this year as far as last year."
Having lost to Yakutat in last season's state semifinals, this year's edition of the Wolverines had another tall task in front of them in the Harpoonerettes, who were last year's runners-up and had already beaten Ninilchik 52-48 in overtime at the Whaler Invitational in Barrow in January.
Ehlers cited that as the turning point of Ninilchik's season, even though the Wolverines finished the game with only four girls on the floor after three had fouled out. The Wolverines amassed just eight fouls overall on Wednesday, compared to 20 by Point Hope.
"We began the year really rough and we were weak and we started working hard and playing together," she said. "I think in Barrow when we played Point Hope was when we finally turned it around and just realized that we have the potential. But we needed to start working better as a team."
Wednesday's performance exemplified that to perfection.
Hitting 50 percent (7-of-14) of their shots in the opening eight minutes, Ninilchik owned a 16-9 edge entering the second thanks to points from five different players, including the final five from Schnabl.
But despite owning the lead, the Wolverines promptly altered their approach.
When Tammy Burgess netted two of her game-high 14 points at the 5:52 mark of the second quarter, Ninilchik slowed the game down.
An Ehlers' put-back and a Tera Schnabl bucket off a turnover highlighted an 8-1 run that made it 22-12 with 3:30 left in the first half. Ehlers than received an inbounds pass under the hoop and capped a carefully executed 3-for-5 performance from the field in the quarter to send her team into the locker room with a 10-point cushion.
"That was something that we made an adjustment to. Part of it was we did throw up a lot of shots that first quarter, but they had that zone packed in so tight that we weren't getting off good shots," Leman said. "We wanted to see if they'd come out and change their defense a little bit and make them come out and play a little man.
"I think it worked a little bit," he added. "But more than anything, the girls just played excellent defense and did a great job on rebounding. It was amazing."
Leman didn't change a thing in the second half.
Another 3-for-5 showing in the third, including an outside jumper by Rohr and a layup by Bartolowits in the closing minutes of the period, extended the lead to 12 after three.
Point Hope trimmed the deficit to nine on a steal and a layup by Burgess, but Tera Schnabl responded by beating the Harpoonerettes press for an easy two and Skjold stretched the lead to 13 on a two-on-one break with just under five minutes to play.
Another press-beating lay-in by Ehlers punctuated a 3-for-6 showing in the fourth and a 6-for-9 performance from the foul line down the stretch. The layup sealed the win and sent the Wolverines to the finals for the 11th time in the last 13 years.
And while it may have been one or two people leading them to the title game in the past, this time it was a total team effort.
"That's the story of our season right there," Leman said. "Balance is what we've been talking about all season, that we didn't have the one fantastic standout player, but we have a lot of good players and are playing together with some balance that we could probably surprise some people."
He's hoping that's the case against Yakutat, which thrashed Ninilchik by 45 points at the Cook Inlet Classic in December and easily handled Chevak, 61-30, in the semifinals on Wednesday.
The Wolverines will have to game-plan off of memory, though, as Leman said that tape no longer exists.
"Threw that tape away. That tape's no good no more," he said with laugh. "We got beat by 45 points. So, there's not too much you can learn from that. They're a different team. We're a different team.
"We want a do-over."
With Ninilchik's newfound chemistry, anything's possible.
"We're not trying to outshine each other," Ehlers said. "We're trying to get there because we all want it. We know we have to work together to get there."
Matthew Carroll can be reached at matthew.carroll@peninsulaclarion.com.
WOLVERINES 45, HARPOONERETTES 34
Ninilchik 16 12 7 10 „45
Point Hope 9 7 6 12 „34
NINILCHIK (45) „ Skjold 3 3-6 9, Bartolowits 1 6-8 8, L. Schnabl 3 2-3 8, Rohr 1 1-3 3, T. Schnabl 3 0-0 6, Ehlers 5 1-3 11. Totals „ 16 13-23 45.
POINT HOPE (34) „ Burgess 7 0-0 14, Nash 0 0-0 0, Koonuk 0 0-0 0, Tooyak 1 0-0 2, Frankson 2 0-2 4, Kowunna 0 0-2 0, Memeo 2 0-0 6, Lane 3 2-3 8. Totals „ 15 2-7 34.
3-point goals „ Point Hope 2 (Memeo 2). Team fouls „ Ninilchik 8, Point Hope 20. Fouled out „ Burgess, Memeo.
High School Sports