Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé senior Kerra Baxter won the opening tip of the Crimson Bears’ first Region V 4A Southeast Conference game of the year at Ketchikan and 10 seconds later senior sister Cailynn Baxter put in a shot off the glass from a pass by junior Gwen Nizich en route to a 58-27 win over the Lady Kings.
“Honestly, I think it just came down to straight intensity between the first half and the second half,” JDHS coach Tanya Nizich said. “We came out a little lackadaisical and we all knew it and talked about it. To me, the second half was a completely different showing.”
JDHS pulled down 17 rebounds in the first half and 26 in the second.
“Definitely our height, our lengthiness played a big part in just having touches on their passes and rebounding,” coach Nizich said. “We talked about that. We definitely knew that we should control the boards, and we crashed and came up with a lot. Just being aggressive and never quitting on a rebound or put back and going up hard.”
JDHS was never threatened in the contest that was tied once at 2-2 when Kayhi junior Kari Klinger scored inside.
JDHS responded with a 13-5 run that included seven points by K. Baxter, and two apiece from C. Baxter, Gwen Nizich and Cambry Lockhart.
“Kerra just stuck with it,” coach Nizich said. “She got banged around a bit in there, but just went after it if she missed one and went back up and drew the fouls.”
The Crimson Bears were in full court press mode the entire first half and, after a pair of Kayhi free throws by freshman Peyton Nickich, the JDHS players put on a 10-1 run for a 22-10 lead with five minutes left in the half.
Nizich hit from past the arc and twice inside on assists by sophomore Layla Tokuoka in that flurry.
“This first conference game is always very exciting, just seeing how we push to the end for each game and not going with their tempo throughout,” Tokuoka said. “I know this game had a slower start than we thought, but we still pulled through and have an idea of how the rest of our conference games will be.”
Tokuoka, Nizich and sophomore June Troxel, with assists by Lockhart, would push the lead out to 29-14, and Tokuoka hit inside on an assist from Nizich for a 31-14 lead with two minutes left in the half.
“The first conference game allowed us to come together and set the tone for the rest of the games against Kayhi,” Lockhart said. “We had to come out strong and match their aggressiveness. We are working towards our goals asa whole and hope to continue to grow until the end of the season.”
Kayhi senior Shyla Abajan put in two free throws and JDHS senior Addison Wilson scored for the 33-16 lead at the break.
JDHS’ offense is keyed by their defense and the Crimson Bears make a habit of full court pressing, sometimes for 32 minutes.
“These kids just want to run, and I am all for it,” coach Nizich said. “They will even ask, ‘Hey, we are down to do full court, if you want us to do it all game we will,’ and I am like, ‘OK.’ They are just amped up ready to go every game.”
JDHS opened the second half on a 8-2 run with K. Baxter sinking six free throws and a basket inside to account for all the Crimson Bears carnage.
Lockhart and Erickson followed with a steal and a free throw apiece, C. Baxter scored off a Lockhart steal and Troxel hit a free throw to close the third quarter with the Crimson Bears leading 46-20.
No rebound belonged to Kayhi as the fourth quarter started and another 9-2 run put JDHS up 55-22 with four minutes remaining in the game.
The Crimson Bears put in a new roster and Troxel, Erickson and freshmen Lydia Goins, Athena Warr and Sadie Lockhart battled into the final seconds with help from Nizich and Wilson for the 58-27 win.
“People coming off the bench have already seen so many minutes so far this season that they do look comfortable out there,” coach Nizich said. “A little shaky at first, but once they get in the groove they are confident and it is really nice to have those options of all the substitutions that we have. It’s good to have fresh legs on the court…So far this season, in the first four, five or six players that go in there has been a different player stand out in each game. That is super exciting because we know that if one person has the hot hand, everybody is looking for that person. And it does seem to be switching throughout the season who that person is going to be.”
K. Baxter led the Crimson Bears with 21 points, Nizich added 11, C. Baxter eight, Tokuoka six, Wilson four, C. Lockhart and Troxel three apiece, and Erickson two. K. Baxter also pulled down 13 rebounds, C. Baxter 12, Tokuoka 6, Nizich 5, Wilson four, Troxel two and Warr one. Tokuoka led with seven assists, Lockhart five and Nizich four. Tokuoka led with five steals, K. Baxter four, Lockhart and Nizich three apiece, and Wilson two.
JDHS hit 20-30 at the free throw line, Ketchikan 8-20.
Kayhi junior Kali MacManus led the Lady Kings with 13 points, Klinger had four, seniors Aspen Bauer and Lilli Goodwin three apiece, Nickich and Abajian two apiece.
JDHS improves to 8-2 overall and 1-0 in the Southeast Conference while Kayhi is 3-5 overall and 0-1 in the conference. The teams play again Saturday.
“Honestly, we have to show up aggressive and I asked them after the game what is it going to take to have us show up with that kind of intensity from the get go instead of having to talk about it halfway through a game,” coach Nizich said. “They know and they are ready for tomorrow. They are already ready for tomorrow.”
The Crimson Bears are ranked atop the 4A girls across all conferences, followed by Wasilla, Colony, Mountain City Christian Academy and Soldotna. Defending state champion Wasilla comes to Juneau the first weekend of February and eighth-ranked Dimond next weekend.
“We try not to talk about things like that too much,” coach Nizich said of polls and rankings. “Just because we still have a lot of stiff competition to look forward to in the weeks to come. Just taking game by game…Just one game at a time and conference.”
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.
