A win would have sent the Wrangell boys team into Saturday’s play with a shot at second place in the Southeast championships to earn a berth at the state high school basketball tournament this week.

But no matter how tough their defense, the Wolves could not overcome Metlakatla in Friday’s game, losing 42-39 and ending their run at the tournament held in Juneau.

It wasn’t the prettiest of wins, but Metlakatla found a way to survive and advance, keeping its state tournament hopes alive with the win in the consolation bracket of the Southeast championships.

The Chiefs never completely solved Wrangell’s zone defense, but offensive rebounds, a gritty effort and, eventually, free throws, were just enough to allow Metlakatla to escape with a win in a physical game after Wrangell missed a game-tying three-point attempt at the buzzer.

“Cody (Angerman) is a real good coach and he had a good game plan for us,” Metlakatla coach TJ Scott said. “He ran something that I had never seen him run all year with that 3-2 zone that was extended, taking away reversals,” Scott explained.

“We ended up treating it more like a man-to-man defense in the second half and that worked better, but it is something we had not seen and didn’t have a real good plan for. … We kind of battled through it and then hit a bunch of big free throws at the end that we needed to because they were hitting shots.”

Though Wrangell had just three field goals the entire game in a 48-12 loss to top-seeded Petersburg the day before its matchup against Metlakatla, the Wolves knocked down six three-pointers against Metlakatla, including three in the fourth quarter.

A three-pointer from Ben Houser gave Wrangell a 37-34 lead with just under two minutes left in the game.

But Metlakatla junior forward Rocco Lindsey answered with a three-point play to tie the score. Lindsey, who was a force inside all game long, grabbing seven offensive rebounds and finishing with 19 points, later added another free throw with 1:09 left to put the Chiefs ahead 38-37.

Lindsey missed the second free throw, but senior Sebashtin Martinez grabbed the offensive rebound and the Chiefs were able to run significant time off the clock before Gianni Scudero Hayward was fouled with 20 seconds left and made both free throws to put Metlakatla up 40-37.

After a basket by Wrangell’s Everett Meissner, Hayward was fouled again and sank both clutch free throws to put Metlakatla back up by three.

Wrangell managed to get the ball to Houser for a three-pointer at the buzzer that missed and Metlakatla escaped with the victory.

Michael Cook led the Wolves on Friday with nine points, followed by Houser and Aadyn Gillen with eight each.

Wrangell opened its tournament run on Wednesday with a win over Craig, 61-43, followed by the loss on Thursday to Petersburg and the loss on Friday to Metlakatla.

The Wolves were behind at the start of their game against Craig after their opponent sank a free throw, but that was the last time all game they were at the low end of the score. Strong shooting gave them a 51-36 lead after three quarters and they coasted to the win.

Jackson Powers led Wrangell with 23 points, Aadyn Gillen added 12 and Lucas Stearns 10.

Haines took first at the Division 2A Southeast tournament, held March 4-7 in Juneau, with Metlakatla in second. Wrangell placed fourth.

The state championships are Wednesday through Saturday, March 11-14, in Anchorage.

Wrangell’s Powers was named to the Southeast All-Tournament team.

Powers and Houser were named for All-Academic Awards, and Good Sports Awards went to Powers and Carter Howell.

Powers won the three-point shooting contest at the tournament.

The Southeast tournament Team Sportsmanship Award was awarded jointly to the Wrangell and Petersburg boys and girls teams.

The Wrangell Sentinel and Juneau Independent contributed reporting for this story.