Hawks look to build with win

FAIRBANKS — Before his Houston Hawks took the court to face the Lathrop Malemutes on Friday, head coach Sean Seamands told his athletes to play like this is the game that will take them to the state tournament.

Ultimately, the Hawks didn’t secure the Mid-Alaska Conference’s lone berth to the state tournament. But Houston did score one of its biggest victories in recent memory.

Houston scored a 59-58 overtime win over Lathrop, giving the Hawks their first MAC tournament win in school history.

“We lost to (Lathrop) twice this year, but I told the girls we can definitely win, based on the way we’ve played them in the past,” Seamands said by cell phone from North Pole High, the host school of the 2011 MAC Championships. “I told them to go out and play hard.”

And that’s exactly what Houston did.

Savanna James led the Houston effort with a game-high and season-best 35 points. James has spent her junior season dropping double-digit scoring efforts on opponents, and routinely hit the 20-point mark during the latter portion of the 2010-11 season. But Seamands said he saw something different in James against Lathrop.

“She was on a mission to go to the hoop with attitude,” Seamands said of James, who was named first-team all-conference before the tournament. “We’ve seen her before get the ball in the paint, finesse it up, use a nice little sweet move.

“(Against Lathrop), she was showing a little bit of attitude, not in a negative way. She was finally getting the ball and going up with authority.”

James also grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds in the game.

While James supplied more than half of the scoring, Seamands said it was the effort of all of the Hawks that helped propel his team to victory.

“It was just pure hustle,” Seamands said.

Junior Janae Shannon added nine points in the win. Freshman Victoria Baybado pulled down six rebounds.

Even though the Hawks’ season came to an end with a 65-27 loss to North Pole Saturday morning, Seamands said the victory over the Malemutes will continue to help Houston build a basketball foundation.

“It’s a huge thing, just mentally,” Seamands said. “To finish that game, finish it in overtime, for those young girls to have that taste in their mouth, know they can win, know that they are capable of playing with those tough teams. That’s huge as far as confidence building.”

Seamands said it’s also a nice way for his four seniors — Melissa Dodds, Shelby Shaffer, Amber Acton and Savannah Ritter — to cap their careers.

“They were super stoked to win that game, especially in overtime,” Seamands said.

Lathrop boys top Houston

FAIRBANKS — Lathrop scored a 58-49 win over the Houston Hawks during the second day of the boys’ Mid-Alaska Conference Championships at North Pole High School on Friday.

Tyler Hamilton scored 20 points to help Lathrop score the win and end Houston’s 2010-11 campaign. Junior Scott Kramer, who was named first-team all-conference prior to the tournament, led the Hawks with 13 points and six rebounds.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/matsu_sports.