The Juneau-Douglas girls basketball team couldn’t duplicate their explosive 56-point Friday performance in their final regular season game against Ketchikan.
In a 36-30 loss to the Lady Kings on Saturday, the Crimson Bears made just one 3-pointer, five fewer than the night before. Senior Alyxn Bohulano finished with 13 points in a game that featured long stretches without a basket. Caitlin Pusich scored just five points after going for 26 on Friday.
“We didn’t show very much discipline on our offensive end,” JDHS coach Steve Potter said. “We made some 3’s yesterday and we kind of fell in love with that. … We’ve struggled with patience all year and when we get 30 points in a game — which has happened a few times — it’s almost always because we’re impatient on the offensive end.”
[Photos: Juneau-Douglas girls basketball vs. Ketchikan]
Freshman Shaelynn Mendoza scored 11 points and Lianne Guevarra and Jenae Rhoads scored eight apiece for Ketchikan.
“I thought for the first time against these guys, we had a lot more poise than we’ve had,” Kayhi coach Kelly Smith said. “We lost by 15 to them in Ketchikan on a Friday night, and lost to them by two on Saturday where we had a lead in the fourth quarter of that game. It was kind of just like this one and we blew it.”
JDHS trailed 20-16 at halftime and 25-24 after the third quarter, but showed some life in the fourth. Bohulano sped past Guevarra on a fastbreak for the right-handed layup and lead with about 7:30 left.
Pusich recorded a block and a steal on the ensuring Ketchikan possession, and raced 50 feet down the court for the open layup. Her attempt was too strong though, and Rhoads quickly regained the one-point lead for the Lady Kings. Guevarra and Mendoza scored five consecutive points as Ketchikan led the rest of the way.
“Shaelynn Mendoza hit a huge 3 in the corner, she’s our freshman, and then Jenae Rhoads made a couple beautiful dives to the basket, she’s another freshman for us,” Smith said.
The JDHS girls host Thunder Mountain this Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. The Crimson Bears must at least split the series in order to win the Southeast Conference. JDHS holds a conference record of 4-2, Kayhi is 5-3 and Thunder Mountain is 1-5.
In other action on Saturday night, the JDHS boys defeated Mt. Edgecumbe 71-53 at the B.J. McGillis Gym in Sitka and the TMHS boys lost to Ketchikan 61-46 at the Clark Clarke Cochrane Gym in Ketchikan.
The JDHS and TMHS boys play in the first round of the Region V 4A Tournament next Tuesday at 8:15 p.m. at Mt. Edgecumbe. The winner of that game will advance to play Ketchikan on Wednesday afternoon. The Kings received a first-round bye as the conference winners.
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nainsworth@juneauempire.com. Follow Empire Sports on Twitter at @akempiresports.
