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ANCHORAGE — Dave Bridges put his hand on Zack Carroll’s head and gave it a fatherly rub.

“It’s redemption time,” the Fort Yukon coach said.

Wes James’ layup had just sealed the Eagles’ 69-65 win over the Russian Mission Raiders in the consolation bracket of the Class 1A boys state basketball tournament on Wednesday — and assured Carroll a chance at redemption.

“Zack didn’t play well, and I’d hate for him to go out like that as a senior,” Bridges said of the forward who fouled out early in the fourth quarter. “I told him it’s redemption time. He has one more game.”

In a back-and-forth contest that saw 12 lead changes and 10 ties, Carroll tallied his fifth foul with the Eagles trailing 58-56 after a Kyle Nickoli 3-pointer with 7:38 to play.

But Carroll’s team picked him up.

James tied the game with a layup and Shawn Peter, the Eagles’ leading scorer, connected on two free throws to give Fort Yukon the lead, 60-58.

Kenneth Vaska forged another tie with a layup, but two free throws from James and a mid-range jumper helped spark an 9-2 Eagles run.

James’ layup off a long inbounds pass gave Fort Yukon a 68-62 lead with less than 10 seconds to play, and Bridges started his celebration.

“We’re feeling a lot better today,” said Bridges, whose team suffered a narrow loss to King Cove in Tuesday’s opener. “A lot could have been said yesterday, but today, we’ll just smile and go home.”

Peter scored 23 points and grabbed 17 rebounds for Fort Yukon, going 6-of-19 from the field and 10-of-13 from the free-throw line.

Peter entered the fourth quarter with four fouls and a fifth might have doomed the Eagles, forcing them to close out the game with four players on the floor. That’s what happened against King Cove after James and Carroll fouled out.

James added 20 points for Fort Yukon and Carroll and Logan Fields contributed 10.

Vaska had a game-high 27 points to lead Russian Mission.

“He’s just an expert ball player,” Bridges said. “We stuck (Peter) on him later in the fourth quarter and he didn’t score.”

The win assured Fort Yukon a spot in the fourth-place game at 9:35 this morning.

Huslia romps

From the second quarter on, it was all Huslia as the Huslers claimed a 61-25 win over Alakanuk in 1A girls play.

While the Huslers had a five-point lead by the end of the first quarter, what they did from then on was truly impressive.

Huslia held the Braves to just 11 points the rest of the way, blanking the Lady Braves in the fourth quarter, to win going away and secure a spot in the 8 a.m. fourth-place contest against Alak.

Alak downed Kwethluk 77-38 Wednesday.

Four players scored in double figures for Huslia, with Darlene Sam recording a game-best 15 points.

Lois Vent and Serena Edwin added 12 points apiece and Samantha Sam provided 10 points.

Sonya Stanislaus (11 points) scored nearly half of Alakanuk’s points.

Tri-Valley triumphs

The Tri-Valley Warriors rode relentless defense to a spot in today’s fourth-place game.

Tri-Valley smothered Hoonah’s offense early, holding them to six points in each of the first two quarters as it cruised to a 51-42 win.

Hoonah shot just 17 percent in the first half as the Warriors sprinted to a 37-12 halftime lead.

Ben Renshaw led the way for the Warriors, picking up 24 points and 16 boards.

Caleb Harris was the only other player in double figures for the Central Interior Conference runner-up, tallying 10 points.

Charles Carteeti led Hoonah with 12 points.

The Warriors will take on the Noorvik Bears today at 9:35 a.m. in a battle for fourth place after the Bears beat Angoon 64-41 in the other consolation game.

Northway edges Kake

The Northway Warriors girls locked up a shot at fourth place in the Class 2A tournament after taking down the Kake Thunderbirds 41-37.

Katherine Albert and Kayli Hildebrand led Northway as it slowly pulled away from Kake.

The Thunderbirds got out to a hot start, taking a 12-6 lead after the first quarter, but the Warriors found their offense in the second to enter the intermission locked in a 19-19 tie.

The Warriors had a one-point lead after three quarters before taking the lead for good in the final minute of the game.

Hildebrand picked up a double-double, tallying 12 points while pulling down 12 rebounds. Albert had 12 points and six boards for the winners.

Nicole Wooton led Kake with 17 points and 12 rebounds.

The Warriors will play in today’s 8 a.m. fourth-place game against the Cook Inlet Academy.

Galena girls fall

The Cook Inlet Academy turned up the pressure in the third quarter and Galena couldn’t respond.

As a result, the Hawks managed just two points in the third frame as CIA broke open a tight game to claim a 43-32 win, knocking the Hawks out of the 2A girls tournament.

“We just are really young and really inexperienced,” Hawks coach Beth Buchanan said. “My key players struggled the last two games.”

The Hawks trailed just 22-21 at halftime.

But CIA’s man press took Galena out of its half-court offense and the Hawks could only manage two points, on a pair of free throws, in the third quarter as the Eagles took a 33-23 lead into the final quarter.

“We had a good run, played hard and got here when people really didn’t expect us to,” Buchanan said.

Sam Lane led the Hawks with 10 points. But senior Ashley Burgett (eight points on 3-of-12 shooting) and junior Adrienne Beans (1-of-13 from the field for seven points and eight boards) shot just a combined 16 percent from the floor.

Wednesday’s loss was Galena’s final game as a 2A school. The Hawks will move up to 3A play next year, and with just one senior graduating, they have high hopes.

“We’re going to have to play at another level, but we’ve got a lot of girls waiting in the wings, and this was good experience,” Buchanan said. “I’m hopeful for next year.”