Seniors Caitlin Pusich and Alyxn Bohulano led the Juneau-Douglas girls basketball team to a senior night win Saturday over their crosstown rivals.
Bohulano, best known for her gritty defense, and Pusich, a lethal long-range shooter, scored 14 and 12 points respectively in a 47-34 win over Thunder Mountain. The other two seniors — Skylar Hickok and Leah Neyhart — had two points apiece to help complete the weekend sweep. JDHS won 50-29 on Friday.
“We started off in our heads — it’s the last game for us, so we were freaking out a little,” Bohulano said. “But once we got the momentum, we started being patient, and we got those layups. It was a pretty cool experience to play our last game with Caitlin and Skylar.”
Nina Fenumiai talled nine points and Charlee Lewis and Neal Garcia had eight in the loss.
“We came out last night and we did not play good at all,” TMHS coach Chandler Christensen said. “So we just wanted to come out and play better. We wanted to come out and do the little things that we were asking them to do, see them execute, and they did that. We couldn’t get some shots to fall, they got some good ones to fall.”
Juneau-Douglas’ Caitlin Pusich drives to the basket while being defended by Thunder Mountain’s Charlee Lewis during their game on Saturday, March 2, 2019. JDHS won 47-34. (Nolin Ainsworth | Juneau Empire)
Bohulano steadied the Crimson Bears in the second quarter, scoring six of the team’s 12 points. After going up 20-12 at half, JDHS kept their foot on the gas to wear out their opponent.
“It seemed to work out better for us to play at a faster pace against them,” Potter said.
The coach lauded each of his seniors for the example they set. Pusich and Bohulano have been the team’s starting backcourt for the past three seasons.
“They’re obviously going to leave big holes, they’re both strong scorers — Caitlin obviously a very strong scorer,” Potter said. “Alyxn has been one of our better defenders for years, so good that other teams had to plan for how good her defense was. It’s going to be tough to replace them but we’re not quite ready to replace them yet.”
Hickok was good with leading the younger players, said Potter, while Neyhart took on whatever role was needed by the team.
“Leah helped us out last year when we really didn’t have enough people to practice,” Potter said.
The Crimson Bears finish the regular season 15-9 and 6-2 in the Southeast Conference. They will be the No. 1 seed and receive a first-round bye when the Region V 4A Basketball Tournament tips off next week in Sitka. Thunder Mountain (8-19, 1-7 SEC) will play Ketchikan on Tuesday at 6:15 p.m. to start things off.
“I think we might have a chance this year,” to win the region tournament, Bohulano said. “Hopefully we can pull it off.”
JUNEAU-DOUGLAS 8 12 14 13 — 47: Bohulano 14, C. Pusich 12, Tuckwood 9, Potter 7, Hickok 2, Neyhart 2, J. Pusich 1.
THUNDER MOUNTAIN 4 8 8 14 — 34: Fenumiai 9, Lewis 8, N. Garcia 8, Hauck 4, Traxler 2, K. Garcia 2, Frommherz 1.
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nainsworth@juneauempire.com. Follow Empire Sports on Twitter at @akempiresports.
Thunder Mountain’s Riley Traxler gets out of the way of Juneau-Douglas’ Sadie Tuckwood in their game at JDHS on Saturday, March 2, 2019. (Nolin Ainsworth | Juneau Empire)
