January 18th, 2012, the new look Eagle River Wolves downed the Chugiak Mustangs 55 to 44. The Wolves were led by Senior Chris Parker, who had 22 points in the victory. Going into the game, the gym (not quite packed, but full of the Chugiak and Eagle River fans) had an electric feel about it.
I think they need to work on the intros a little though. The Eagle River Boys come onto the flow to the Alan Parsons Project song “Sirius”. This is the same song that the Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls did for their introductions. You know, starting at forward, standing 6’7″ tall, from Central Arkansas, number 33, Scotty Pippen!…..and when they got to number 23, you could no longer hear the announcer, or the music, or anything but the crowd roaring. I know, Eagle River is not the Bulls, and it is not the NBA, but for this Chugiak game, I was kind of hoping to hear the Wolves hit the flow to “Bring em Out” or pull some old school BBD with “Above the Rim”, then after the National Anthem, and the intros to the Mustangs, pull out some spotlights, turn off the gym lights, and crank up the audio so Mr. Patton can do the intros of the Eagle River boys, get the boys pumped, get the gym rocking, have some fun with it. Just for one game, it would be cool. But, even without my intro wishes, there was still an electric feeling in the air. I think for everyone supporting Eagle River, they knew they already won the game, Chugiak just did not know that they were going to take the loss. And that could have been a problem for Eagle River.
From the tip off, you could tell this was going to be hard fought game. Winless in the CIC, Chugiak did not seem to realize that Eagle River had beat South by 30, came in second in the Cougar tip off tournament, or that they had a huge last second win over East in their last game. No, they came to play. And play rough. Rough play was coming from both teams, and for the most part the refs let the boys play. ASAA officials do not seem to want to call traveling either way, but it did make way for a fast pace game.
The Wolves jumped out to an early lead, lead by Parker, Shaquan Rhoades, and Kelechi Madubuko. Rhoades took control of the game early on, until Parker started to feel it. At one point I got all excited because the Wolves had a fast break opportunity. Freshman Chaz Jenkins was at half court with the ball coming to him. No one between him and the hoop. I have seen Chaz dunk the ball just standing under the hoop. So I was expecting a rim rocking dunk, but Chugiak was able to break up the pass.
Chugiak took the lead at one point, but tonight was Eagle River’s night. They just out played the Mustangs. It was unfortunate that Madubuko got called for a intentional foul. It was obvious to everyone in the gym that his foul was just a hard foul drawn brilliantly by Chugiak, but not intentional. Later in the same half, an Eagle River player WAS intentionally fouled by a Mustang out of frustration, and again, obvious to everyone in the gym that it should have been 2 shots and the ball for Eagle River, but the refs just called it a foul.
The Surprise in the game for me was the play from Hunter Hill. In the fourth quarter, Hill made some key rebounds and baskets that helped keep the lead in Eagle River’s hands the rest of the game. A rebound, shot that resulted in a three point play for the Wolves by Hill got the Wolves Den rocking to the end of the game.
On another note, the Eagle River and Chugiak game marked a farewell for someone. It was the last basketball game the the Eagle River Pep Band director, Mr. Chris Poole would be at. Mr. Pool and his family are moving to Spokane, Washington and this was his last game as director. Mr. Poole will be missed. On the following Friday, January 20th, at the Eagle River Talent Show, the band presented Mr. Poole with a 16×20 poster taken at his last game. The following picture is what the poster looked like….. Safe travels Mr. Poole.
