The Barrow High School boys basketball team beat WestAnchorage High School 77-70 on January 16th at the West gym in the third-place game of West’s annual high school basketball tournament the Alaska Airlines Classic.

Barrow sophomore point guard Travis Adams and 6’9” small forward Kamaka Hepa led the Whalers with a combined 43 points.

With 1:31 left in the first quarter, Hepa made a 3-pointer to give Barrow a 13-10 lead over West. At the end of the first West trailed by 3 points;14-11. For most of the second quarter Barrow led the Eagles. With 35.1 seconds left, Hepa drew a foul making both free throws to give the Whalers a 29-27 lead.

West senior point guard Da’zhon Wyche made a buzzer beating layup going into halftime to cut Barrow’s lead to 31-29. With about four minutes left in the third quarter West sophomore Joseph Barranco tied the game at 39-39 with a crucial 3-pointer.

West’s Darion Lawson and Barrow’s junior shooting guard Trevor Thompson exchanged 3-pointers to again tie it up at 42-42 with about a minute left in the third quarter.

After the Eagles scored two points, Travis Adams came through to tie the game with eight seconds left in the quarter to make it 51-51. At the beginning of the fourth quarter Lawson hit a trey (3-pointer) to put the Eagles up 54-51. In a span of 1:23 Adams made two layups to keep the Whalers up 59-56. Barrow guard Trevor Thomas made a mid-range jumper and layup for four points in 30 seconds giving them a seven point lead over the Eagles at 63-56.

In the end, the Whalers held on to the lead that Adams and Thomas gave them in the fourth quarter winning 77-70.

In other tournament games on Saturday, Pro-Vision Academy beat Bartlett 82-64 and Longmont Christian lost to Colony 74-33. In the championship game, Planet Athlete from Arizona beat East High 94-89 for a first place finish. After starting the Alaska Airlines Tournament strong with a 82-70 victory over the Colony Knights, West stumbled against Planet Athlete losing 82-77.
After breaking the Alaska Airlines tournament record for most points scored in a game with 48 against Planet Athlete, Wyche led the Eagles in scoring with 18 points against the Whalers.  Hepa contributed a double-double for Barrow with 23 points and 19 rebounds while Travis Adams had 20 points on 8 of 11 shooting from the field. As freshman, the duo led the Whalers to a 26-3 record with 18 straight wins and a Class 3A championship. Hepa averaged 17 points and 10 rebounds while Adams had 11 points, four rebounds and four assists a game.

Last year, Wyche and Lawson led the Eagles to a 21-3 record and a Class 4A championship under head coach Antonio Wyche. With the tournament over, Planet Athlete’s 6’5” Jachai Taylor won the Most Valuable Player award and West’s Da’zhon Wyche was on the All-Tournament team along with Barrow’s Travis Adams and Kamaka Hepa.