The Seward girls basketball team defeated Glennallen 51-29 for the Class 2A state title Saturday at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage.

After losing their first two games of the season to Class 4A schools Soldotna and Palmer by a combined 11 points, the Seahawks won their next 26 games for the second girls state title in school history. The first came in 1998 at the Class 3A level.

Seward (technically 27-2 due to also getting a forfeit win this season) won as a No. 3 seed against the No. 4 Panthers (18-4).

Seward’s historic season was not a triumph of modernity.

In an affront to the sabermetrics that run the NBA, the Seahawks launched just six 3-pointers in their three-game run through the tournament, making one. Opponents let fly 36 times.

Maybe the most modern thing about the squad is the UCLA 1-4 high offense, which Seward head coach Curtis Berry said is 80 years old.

Other ingredients to success are defensive fundamentals and team-bonding qualities that have been around forever.

“It’s not about being the most skilled, although there’s a level where that’s the case,” Berry said. “Here, at least for us, it’s about cohesiveness.

“It’s about buying into the same concept and liking each other and wanting something together and being competitive. I think you see that in our scrappiness and our will to compete. You don’t have to have to most skill, you just have to have the most fire.”

Berry said he never could have predicted the season to come after losing the first two games of the season, but even in the losses, he noticed a promising cohesiveness and competitiveness.

“I did have a feeling these kids were something special,” Berry said. “I think they could feel it too.

“I think it vibed back and forth a little bit. In our philosophy, we never looked ahead. It’s always in the moment. Focus now. Focus now, and finish.”

Addison Lemme, one of the team’s two seniors along with Natalie Sieminski, said she’s known almost everyone on the team since kindergarten.

She said knowing everybody so well allows the team to have fun when it’s necessary, and get down to business when it’s necessary.

“When we get on the court, we get in our heads, focus, and we bring each other up,” Lemme said. “With the girls, it’s never been an argument.

“We always help each other through every aspect, no matter what happens. And I think that’s the most important thing, is always bringing each other up, not matter what happens.”

Seward dropped to Class 2A from Class 3A this season for a reason — the high school dropped to 150 students or below when the Alaska School Activities Association checked for its three-year classification cycle.

Berry said the Mount Marathon Race definitely gives the town a running identity, but he added there has always been a tight group dedicated to basketball even as the school population has grown smaller.

Lemme said she had four uncles who played basketball throughout high school. Her twin, Talon, is on the boys team, as are cousins Mason Elhard and Luke Elhard.

Junior Mikinley Williams, who led all scorers in the title game with 22 points, is the daughter of assistant coach Grace Williams.

Grace was a senior on the 1996-97 Seward team that lost in the state final by one point to Nikiski.

“That’s actually why I wear No. 12,” Williams said. “When she was in high school, she was No .12, so I kind of wear it to honor her.

“She’s probably my biggest supporter when it comes to the sport.”

With all due respect to John Wooden’s offense, the Seahawks got their identity from defense.

Seward allowed 30 or more points in the first four games, then allowed 30 or more in four of the next nine. Opponents did not make it to 30 in the last 15 games.

“We get into our talking and closing out on them and just being really good at going after the ball when it’s loose on the floor,” said Seward junior point guard Ava Jagielski.

Seward boys head coach Al Plan was an assistant to Berry for three years when Berry coached the boys. Berry then stayed on as an assistant under Plan for a few years while also serving as the head coach of the girls.

Plan said if anybody deserves a state championship, it’s Berry. Berry started at Seward in 2008 as the head girls coach.

The Seahawks were always the small fish in the big pond of the Class 3A Southcentral and Peninsula conferences. Before this season, the last trip to state for the girls was 2014.

“He is a basketball genius and underrated, and sometimes you don’t get to see that when you’re playing the ACSs and Graces of the world,” Plan said. “It’s not like we came out here with towering athletes and track stars and outran everybody.

“He put them together. He put a system in place and the girls bought into it.”

On defense, that system was a 1-3-1 zone. When teams figured out how to score, Berry would tinker on the sideline and soon those scoring opportunities would disappear.

In the title game, Glennallen scored 13 points in the second quarter, then 11 the rest of the game.

Berry said one of this team’s superpowers is the ability to take what he says on the sidelines and make it happen on the court.

“I think what makes it work is they’re willing to be tinkered with,” Berry said of his defenders. “We have certain things that we’re trying to do, but we’re always monkeying and wrenching with it.

“They’re always just like, ‘OK. Yea. I can do that.’”

Mikinley Williams said the defense is an outgrowth of the team’s trust in each other. Williams is in the back of the zone, watches the people and coordinates the zone, while the other four react to the ball.

“It’s honestly just a lot of practice,” Williams said. “We all have our specific positions, and we just communicate so much.”

The offense starts with having a jack of all trades point guard in Jagielski.

In the title game, one of the shortest players on the court had 10 points, but also game highs in assists (5), rebounds (8) and steals (6).

“I’ll give you a secret,” Berry said. “She’s a monster baller. She loves to compete, and she would just do anything she can to win in that moment, especially offensively.

“She’s had like four quadruple doubles this year — steals, rebounds, points and assists.”

Jagielski’s first move is usually to pass to Williams or Lia Shank in the high post.

“You’re running circles around the post who has the ball, and we just have to be patient and wait until that perfect opening where it’s just an open layup,” Williams said. “There weren’t too many of those today, but they have happened before.

“If we don’t get that, we just reset and give it back to Ava.”

The relentless execution on offense and defense allowed Seward to turn a 23-18 lead at halftime into a 35-22 lead after three quarters and a 51-29 win.

Shank added 9 for Seward, while Grace Fleming had 7, Lemme had 2 and Sieminski had 1.

For Glennallen, Alianna Stone had 10, Cheyenne Fields had 9, Rene Rock Albert and Brejanay Stone-Jordan had 3, and Chisana Korth and Koiana Cooley had 2.

With Jagielski and Williams back to lead next season’s team, the future looks bright. Berry also is excited to see what the second basketball title the school has won will do for the sport in the community.

But that’s in the future, away from the team’s focus on now.

Berry said he doesn’t like to say which of his teams is the best, but he did allow this: “As far as cohesiveness, their getting along with each other, the fun in practice, the fun in the locker room — they’re probably the best at that.”

Class 2A girls state all-tournament team

Alianna Stone, Glennallen; Ava Jagielski, Seward; Cedar Busk, Unalakleet; Cheyenne Fields, Glennallen; Kali Hill, Chevak; Laney Green, Chevak; Lexi Cook, Metlakatla; Lily Esmailka, Susitna Valley; Lizabeth Ivanoff, Unalakleet; Mikinley Williams, Seward.

The Seward girls celebrate at the Class 2A girls state championship game Saturday, March 15, 2025, at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)

The Seward cheerleaders perform at halftime at the Class 2A girls state championship game Saturday, March 15, 2025, at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)

Seward’s Grace Fleming drives on Glennallen’s Cheyenne Fields at the Class 2A girls state championship game Saturday, March 15, 2025, at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)

Seward’s Addison Lemme drives on Glennallen at the Class 2A girls state championship game Saturday, March 15, 2025, at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)

Seward’s Ava Jagielski and Glennallen’s Alianna Stone battle for the ball at the Class 2A girls state championship game Saturday, March 15, 2025, at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)

Seward’s Ava Jagielski and Glennallen’s Alianna Stone battle for the ball at the Class 2A girls state championship game Saturday, March 15, 2025, at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)

Seward’s Mikinley Williams battles Glennallen’s Koiana Cooley for the ball at the Class 2A girls state championship game Saturday, March 15, 2025, at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)