The Unalaska Raiders won the Girls Championship game at the Rally the Regions Hardwood Classic on Saturday in four minutes of overtime.
Unalaska trailed behind Unalakleet for most of the game, until Kayla Villamor hit two free throws with 25 seconds left to give her team the first lead of the game. In the end, the Raiders beat Unalakleet 51-43.
Riley Spetz –head coach for the girls' team – says going into the final day of the four-day tournament, it came down to a tie-braker for who was going to go to the final game. Villamor and Hailey Wilson were chosen to participate in a shoot-out and got the team into the championship.
"We faced Unalakleet in the championship, which is a common opponent, somebody we play a couple times every year, usually at regions," said Spetz. "We had a tough game. We didn't play very well for most of the game, and then kind of turned it on at a certain point and ended up winning in overtime."
Villamor was the high scorer for Unalaska, with 21 points during the game, including six in a row in overtime.
Wilson, the tournament's individual scoring runner-up, finished with 14, and Alexis Magalong added 13.
"We have some great senior leadership, said Spetz. "A lot of returning girls who have played at [the State Championship] two years in a row now. And so, it's more about me just learning how they like to be coached, and what they need as far as encouragement goes. I'm just trying to be supportive as much as I can. They played really hard, and I think we had a great start to the season so far."
The team was 3-1 over the weekend.
The Raiders boys didn't make the championship game and finished the tournament with a 1-3 record. They lost to Unalakleet 77-70 on Saturday.