Listed generously at 6-foot-6, Seldovia's Levi Harkness rarely has anybody who can guard him inside.
On Wednesday night, though, the senior had an entire lineup to contend with.
One night after dropping 25 points on 30 shots, Harkness was limited to just two points on only five shots as Galena ran into the Class 2A state championship game with a convincing 63-47 victory over the Sea Otters at Sullivan Arena in Anchorage.
"We went with motion early and we tried to go into Jordan (Geagel) and we tried to go back into Levi and they just didn't get position," said Seldovia coach Russ Radliff. "When they're challenged with big, strong kids, they struggle sometimes. Not always, but sometimes.
"This team had an abundance of big, strong kids," he added. "Usually, the teams we face have maybe one or two, if that. This team is the biggest team in our league by far. So he's not used to going against big guys constantly."
And other than being unable to work the ball into Harkness, Seldovia didn't shoot poorly, hitting 45 percent of its shots.
Galena, however, was just on fire.
Roberto Burgess netted a team-high 15 points, Clifton Pitka added 10 and the Hawks drained 52 percent of their shots „ predominantly layups „ in jumping out to a comfortable 13-point advantage at halftime after a blistering 10-for-13 second-quarter performance from the floor.
"They're not an outside shooting team really," Radliff explained. "They worked the ball in for a good shot. Once in a while they take an outside shot."
Galena struggled in the third, hitting just five of 13 shots, yet still owned a 48-31 lead as Seldovia made just two of its seven.
Tyler Yoder netted four of his eight points in an 18-second span in the fourth in extending the lead to 52-36. But while it was clearly out reach by the middle of the frame, Seldovia hung tough as Tim O'Leary collected five of his 12 points in the quarter and Griffin Swick added eight of his game-high 17.
And when it was all said and done, the Sea Otters were still smiling.
"We've had a good run. The kids played hard and we've improved as the season's went on and they've really kind of hit their peak here this season right now and played well (Tuesday)," Radliff said. "We played well at parts (Wednesday). We just didn't put the whole game together."
Despite turning the ball over on four of their first five possessions, Seldovia only trailed 8-7 at the 3:45 mark of the first after sinking their first three shots, one each by Harkness, Swick and Geagel.
After Galena's Brian Settle nailed a trey from the top of the arc for a 12-9 lead, Seldovia closed the quarter on an 8-2 run behind back-to-back 3-pointers by Swick and Matthew Gain and another outside jumper by Gain that capped a 7-for-9 performance from the field and gave the Sea Otters a 17-14 edge after eight minutes.
"We came out ready to play. We hit some good shots. We shot well. They're real aggressive and they took us out of the things we wanted to do," Radliff said. "We had some bad turnovers early, but we made up for it. We had the lead."
The Hawks answered with an 8-2 second-quarter spurt of their own, four coming off two Sea Otter turnovers, and recaptured a 22-19 edge until Swick made it a one-point game with a baseline jumper with 5:05 to play in the period.
That would be as close as Seldovia would get the rest of the way, though, as Burgess punctuated an emphatic 17-4 Galena run with seven consecutive points on an alley-oop lay-in, a breakaway created by his own steal and a 3-pointer with 2:25 left on the second-quarter clock.
"Burgess is tough going to the hole," Radliff said. "They're a good team."
Pitka then took his turn, scoring six straight Galena points, all on driving layups, in sending the Hawks into halftime with a commanding 37-24 lead.
"We slowed them down a little bit in the second half," Radliff said. "We just didn't do anything on the offensive end. We had to come back offensively and we just didn't get the ball inside."
Averaging 19 points over the past four games, Harkness was a nonfactor throughout the first 16 minutes Wednesday, taking only two shots and grabbing one of his three rebounds on the evening.
"We weren't getting the ball where we wanted to get it," Radliff said. "Normally we go to Levi and that opens up the rest of the guys. He's got to get the ball and score, Jordan's got to get the ball and score inside and they didn't get the ball in position to score and allow us to open up the outside game."
The Sea Otters move on to the third-place game at 12:45 p.m. today against Point Hope, who surrendered 44 points to Mason King and fell to Peninsula Conference champion Bristol Bay, 71-70.
"We'll see if we can come back and battle for third place, see if we have a chance against Point Hope," Radliff said. "If we play well, I think we'll be in the game."
Matthew Carroll can be reached at matthew.carroll@peninsulaclarion.com
HAWKS 63, SEA OTTERS 47
Galena 14 23 11 15 „63
Seldovia 17 7 7 16 „47
GALENA (63) „ Burgess 5 3-4 15, Burgett 1 0-0 2, Settle 2 0-0 5, Yoder 4 0-0 8, Walker 1 0-1 2, Marshall 2 0-0 4, Pitka 5 0-0 10, Aloysius 2 0-0 4, Floyd 3 0-0 6, Sam 3 0-0 7. Totals „ 28 3-5 63.
SELDOVIA (47) „ Kroll 0 0-0 0, Baines 0 0-0 0, Swick 4 7-11 17, Geagel 4 0-0 8, O'Leary 4 4-8 12, Gain 3 1-2 8, Harkness 1 0-0 2. Totals „ 16 12-21 47.
3-point goals „ Galena 4 (Burgess 2, Settle 1, Sam 1); Seldovia 3 (Swick 2, Gain 1). Team fouls „ Galena 21, Seldovia 10. Fouled out „ none.
High School Sports