Petersburg, the No. 3 seed, defeated No. 6 Ninilchik 44-42 on Thursday in the opening round of the Class 2A state basketball tournament at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage.
The Wolverines (18-10) now need to win twice to take fourth place at the tournament. Ninilchik faces No. 7 Wrangell, which lost 48-45 to No. 2 Cordova, on Friday at 12:30 p.m.
Ninilchik, the two-time defending Class 2A state champs, came all the way back from 10 points down in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 42 when Kade McCorison scored with 35 seconds left in the game.
The Vikings would hold the ball until finding Elijah Whitacre with a bounce pass underneath. Whitacre scored just his fourth point of the game for a 44-42 lead with 1.5 seconds left.
McCorison, who finished with 27 points, had a three-quarters court heave at the buzzer that bounded off the backboard as time expired.
Both teams played zone for the game. Ninilchik attacked the zone with a mixture of inside and outside shots, finishing 8 of 21 on 2-pointers and 8 of 22 on 3-pointers for the game.
Petersburg pounded the ball inside. The Vikings were 16 of 33 from 2-point range and 2 of 6 from 3. Petersburg also escaped the game with a 6 of 15 effort from the charity stripe, while Ninilchik was 2 of 2 from the line.
The Wolverines started out hot from behind the arc and led 12-8 after the first quarter, but then went cold and trailed 19-15 at halftime. The Vikings carried a 33-25 lead into the third quarter.
After Petersburg went up by 10, Rowan Mahoney had a 3-pointer, then a steal and layup, and McCorison added a pair of foul shots to cut the deficit to 35-32 with 6:10 left.
The Vikings would stretch the lead out again to 40-32, but the Wolverines went on a 10-2 run to tie it. McCorison had a pair of 3s and two foul shots, while Carter Lemons had a steal and a layup.
McCorison scored his points by going 5 of 12 from both 2- and 3-point range. The sophomore also added nine rebounds.
Mahoney had 7, while Brandt Mill had 3 and Lemons had 2.
For the Vikings, Hendrik Cumps had 15, Hunter Conn had 13 and 11 rebounds, Kieran Cabral had 12 and Whitacre had the 4. Petersburg outrebounded Ninilchik 28-18.
