ANCHORAGE — On Tuesday I witnessed the greatest act of sportsmanship I have ever seen.

Huslia’s girls basketball team played with four players, even though they had a roster of 10.

They didn’t have to, but they did.

You might be wondering why they played with four players instead of five.

Here is the reason.

Their opponent, Port Lions, a team with a roster of five girls, had only four girls who could compete. The fifth — Katie Strong – sprained her ankle in the Kings opening round loss to Kiana in the 1A girls state basketball tournament.

Strong wanted to play the next day. She warmed up with the team, started, but came out 17 seconds later.

When Strong went to the bench, a Huslia player went and stood on the edge of the court by the Hustlers’ bench.

Every other possession a different player would stand in the spot. This happened the entire game.

It was truly an amazing sight to see —a team that could have played with five deciding to play with four to even the game out.

How many teams would do that in a state tournament?

Probably not many.

I couldn’t see a 4A school doing that. I couldn’t see a 3A school doing that. I couldn’t see a 2A school doing that. But, in the 1A classification — the smallest in Alaska — it happened.

Port Lions coach Dana Strong said a lot of village teams sometimes have to resort to playing with four players at times, but most of the time the opposing team keeps five on the floor.

He was expecting Huslia to use a full lineup, especially in a state tournament game. He was mistaken.

What makes this story even better is the Huslia girls wanted to do this.

Huslia head coach Phillip Roberts asked his players before the game if they wanted to play four-on-four and they all agreed that it would be the right thing to do.

Huslia went on to beat Port Lions by two points and then beat Napaskiak in the fourth-place game the next day. And they won the Sportsmanship Award.

I couldn’t think of a team that is more deserving of the Sportsmanship Award in my time covering sports than the Huslia Hustlers.

Like I said in the lead, this is the greatest act of sportsmanship I have ever seen. Huslia didn’t care that it was a loser-out game; they just wanted to make it fair. And they did.

For this I am giving the Huslia Hustlers another award — a Clarky. I know it is early, but this is a special circumstance. Just call it a commemorative Clarky.

March Madness

Alaska’s March Madness is halfway done with the 1A and 2A schools already finished. The 3A and 4A schools will wrap up the madness on Saturday.

However, March Madness is just beginning everywhere else.

I had a difficult time filling out my NCAA bracket this year. I’m not feeling real confident with my choices, but luckily I don’t have a lot of money on the line.

I have Louisville, Memphis, Pittsburgh and Oklahoma in my Final Four, with Oklahoma beating Memphis in the championship game.

Of course, everybody in Kodiak was probably routing for Binghamton, Nick Billings’ alma mater, but the team lost to Duke in its first NCAA tournament game.

And I almost picked them as my upset. Good thing I didn’t.

Mirror writer Derek Clarkston can be reached via e-mail at sports@kodiakdailymirror.com.