PHOTOS: Photo slideshow of the game by Michael Penn<\/a>]<\/p>\nAfter Tupou\u2019s game-winner, the officiating crew decided to put a little bit of time back on the clock, determining that JDHS had gotten a timeout call in with just a few tenths of a second left.<\/p>\n
The extra time didn\u2019t amount to anything; Tupou, Reishus-O\u2019Brien and the Falcons had the victory they badly needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I had drawn up didn\u2019t work, to be honest,\u201d Blasco said after the game. \u201cThe ball didn\u2019t get to where we wanted to, but Chase knew we needed to penetrate the rim and get them to collapse, and Garth was open for the mid-range jumper, which I am just thankful he hit. I think it hit every side of the rim.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blasco said the game was a \u201cbig confidence booster\u201d against a \u201cvery good JDHS team.\u201d He said he didn\u2019t have much to do with the win and was just happy for his guys, especially Tupou.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s one of those kids who every day in practice gives it all he\u2019s got,\u201d Blasco said. \u201cHe never complains. He\u2019s a great teammate. \u2026 For him to hit that, I couldn\u2019t be happier for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The game as it led up to that moment lived up to its billing. JDHS owned the glass, but TMHS hit the shots they needed to stay with their much taller opponents.<\/p>\n
On offense, Kelly (22 points) and Reishus-O\u2019Brien went head-to-head, trading buckets in a game that saw 12 lead changes before it was over. No player outside of those two scored more than seven points as the pair combined for 49, over half of all scoring on the night.<\/p>\n
JDHS coach Robert Casperson said his team \u201chas all the pieces,\u201d but having lost the first three of their eight conference games, \u201cjust can\u2019t put the puzzle together.\u201d The Crimson Bears used their height well, but couldn\u2019t execute on offense.<\/p>\n
Rebounds \u201cshould be a given\u201d with JDHS\u2019 height advantage, Casperson elaborated, but they haven\u2019t been able to take advantage on offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s gotta be what we do with our possessions that we get out of those. \u2026 If we get a defensive rebound and miss the bucket, you know, what\u2019s the point? So we are creating more possessions for ourselves, but it\u2019s what we do with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
JDHS and TMHS play again Saturday. Look for coverage of that game at juneauempire.com and in Tuesday\u2019s print edition.<\/p>\n
CRIMSON BEARS 48, FALCONS 49 <\/strong><\/p>\nJuneau-Douglas 14 16 8 10 \u201448<\/p>\n
Thunder Mountain 17 12 10 10 \u201449<\/p>\n
Juneau-Douglas (48) \u2014 Kelly 22, Hoover 6, Bohulano 5, Swofford 4, Lozada 4, Hamrick 3, Watts 2, Milligan 2<\/p>\n
Thunder Mountain (49) \u2014 Reishus-O\u2019Brien 27, Saviers 7, G. Tupou 5, McAndrews 4, Morris 3, R. Tupou 2, V. Toutaiolepo 1<\/p>\n
Free throws \u2014 Juneau-Douglas 2-8, Thunder Mountain 7-9<\/p>\n
3-point goals \u2014 Juneau-Douglas 2, Thunder Mountain 6<\/p>\n
Team fouls \u2014 Juneau-Douglas 13, Thunder Mountain 21<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n <\/p>\n
Contact reporter Kevin Gullufsen at 523-2228 or kevin.gullufsen@juneauempire.com<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Down 47-48 with 10 seconds left, Thunder Mountain High School basketball held possession at half court. It was homecoming for the defending state champion Crimson Bears; each student section packed with blue and white on one side, red and black on the other. TMHS coach John Blasco called a timeout and drew up a play. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":10377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-10376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10376"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=10376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}