The Juneau-Douglas boys and girls basketball teams positioned themselves in different places in their respective conference standings on Saturday night.
The JDHS boys fell for the third straight time to Ketchikan to land in last place in the Southeast Conference. Conversely, the JDHS girls defeated Thunder Mountain to take over first place in the conference with a 3-1 record.
Ketchikan boys 85, JDHS 65
JDHS struggled to get defensive stops throughout the game, but especially in the third quarter as junior Chris Lee poured in 17 points. Lee finished with 24.
JDHS sophomore Cooper Kriegmont scored a season-high 26 points in the loss.
JDHS shot 29 of 35 free throws while drawing 25 fouls on the Kings. Ketchikan shot 22 of 26 on 21 fouls by the Crimson Bears.
Conference Records: Ketchikan 3-1; TMHS 1-1; JDHS 2-4.
JDHS girls 43, TMHS 32
Senior Caitlin Pusich led the way with 15 points on a strong all-around performance. The JDHS shooting guard made five total field goals — including three 3-pointers — while shooting 2 of 3 at the foul line. Alyxn Bohulano added eight points for the Crimson Bears, who lost the night before to the Falcons.
“We got more shots for Caitlin today and other people made shots,” JDHS coach Steve Potter said. “Yesterday, we had trouble getting shots for her and we just missed a ton of shots.”
Nina Fenumiai and Taz Hauck scored nine and eight points respectively for the Falcons. Junior Tasi Fenumiai was held to five points after erupting for 17 in the first game of the crosstown series.
“We played a little better defense than we did yesterday,” Potter said. “We didn’t allow Tasi to get a whole bunch of layups like she did on Friday’s game.”
The girls teams play in the Kia Lady Lynx Prep Shootout Tournament in Anchorage this week. The tournament, which tips off Wednesday at Dimond High School, includes a field of 16 teams from all across Alaska. Thunder Mountain will play Anchorage Christian Schools at 2:30 p.m. and JDHS will challenge West Valley at 4:30 p.m.
“We’ve seen West Valley so we know what they have,” Potter said. “They’re big and they’re fast.”
Conference Records: JDHS 3-1; Ketchikan 2-2; TMHS 1-3.
TMHS 76, Service 58
The Falcons’ trio of Brady Carandang, Bryson Echiverri and Puna Toutaiolepo were a force to be reckoned for the final 16 minutes against Service on Saturday. The three starters scored 33 points in the second half squash any potential Cougars’ comeback bid.
Service came back from a nine-point halftime deficit to beat the Falcons on Friday. TMHS led by by the same margin at the midway point on Saturday.
“I’m really happy for them that they never let up and they continued to push,” TMHS coach John Blasco said. “Service battled and we knew that they’re a team that’s never going to quit. So I’m happy to see us not settle for a 10-point lead and keep pushing and know that we need to play a 32-minute game.”
TMHS has mostly just conference games remaining on their regular season. The Falcons are home against Ketchikan and JDHS over the next two weekends. They play the Kings in Ketchikan Feb. 22-23 to round out the regular season.
Blasco is aware of the challenge Ketchikan poses. The Kings seem to be hitting their stride with game totals of 94 and 85 points last weekend.
“Kayhi is a top team in the state,” the coach said. “They’ve got a couple first-team, second or third-team all-state players in Marcus and Chris Lee. They’re going to be a big challenge this week and hopefully we can carry some momentum into the games.”
The Region V tournament is March 5-9 in Sitka.
