FAIRBANKS – With less than one second left on the clock, Team Yukon forward Chris Carino took an inbound pass and threw up a desperation shot.

It sailed wide of the rim, and cued the celebration for Alaskaʼs junior menʼs basketball team.

The rematch of the 2012 Arctic Winter Games gold-medal final was a thriller that ultimately saw a reversal in fortunes for the Alaskan men, thanks to some late-game heroics by wingman Colin Corsetti.

With time winding down on the clock Monday afternoon, the 18-year-old from Unalakleet sank a jump shot from just inside the arc to give his team a 79-78 lead with 0.9 seconds left in the game.

Corsettiʼs game-winning jumper over two Yukon defenders went against his coachʼs orders, he admitted following the win.

"In the huddle, he specifically said ʻI donʼt want a 19-foot jump shot,ʼ” Corsetti explained. "KJ (Mader), our big man, ended up with the ball – Iʼm not sure how – and I was at the top of the key. He saw me wide open, so he kicked it and I was out behind the three. In my head, I heard the coach say ʻNo 19-foot jump shots.ʼ So I glanced at the clock, saw three seconds and just one dribbled it and then pulled up. Hopefully I was within 19 feet.”

Corsetti said it was satisfying to extract some revenge from Alaskaʼs 2012 championship loss to the Yukon, but acknowledged the big games are yet to come.

"Theyʼre a pretty good team,” he said of their Canadian rivals. "They play hard and theyʼll compete with anybody who will show up on the floor against them. We knew it would be a good starting point – win or lose – to see where weʼre at. We ended up with the win, but theyʼre going to come back and weʼll maybe match up with them again.”

The Yukon simply did not have enough time to put together any heroics of their own, Carino said.

"I kind of caught the ball and didnʼt see the rim, didnʼt notice how far I was from the basket,” the 17-year-old Yukon co-captain said of his last-ditch attempt. "It was just a thrown-up shot.”

Carino scored 20 points in the win, behind RJ Siosanʼs team-leading 24. He hopes to get another crack at the Americans later in the tournament.

"I definitely think it will be Alaska and Yukon in the finals,” he said. "Itʼs like a rematch from last Arctics. Theyʼre a beatable team for sure, because they only won by one point. But we just have to go hard and play intense like (coach) Tim (Brady) says.”

Brady said his team is the youngest in the tournament by far, but they played like grizzled veterans for most of the contest.

"The day belonged to Alaska, but I was really proud of our guys,” he said. "They played wire to wire. They played a really poised, intense, aggressive game. That was our game plan.”

The majority of the game saw Brady employ an all-Filipino lineup against the Alaskans.

"Theyʼre the five best players we have, and thatʼs why they start,” the coach said. "Itʼs great to have them.”

Carino and Siosan teamed up with Bryan Hermosa, Ian New and Josh Tobias to push the pace, drawing their share of trips to the foul line with hard-charging layups.

"Weʼve been playing with each other for a while, and we definitely know each otherʼs game,” Carino said. "Back in the Philippines, weʼd play streetball and stuff. Weʼve also learned how to play with the other guys, so itʼs definitely a good experience for our whole team.”

Siosan, 16, is playing in his first Arctic Winter Games after failing to make the squad two years ago.

"I worked hard in practice and wanted to get better every day,” he said of the memory. "Itʼs been an honour that I made the team. I just want to represent my team, my country, my territory and my family.”

The boys evened their record to 1-1 late Monday night with a 75-73 victory over Team Nunavut.

In other action yesterday, the Yukonʼs junior womenʼs team dropped their opening game to Nunavut, 50-33.