The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé boys basketball team fell to undefeated and top-ranked Bettye Davis East Anchorage High School 71-54 on Saturday at the Colony Basketball Classic in Palmer. But the loss was anything but predetermined, as JDHS played with a composure not seen in the season to date against the defending state champions.<\/p>\n
“If they were feeling any nerves I don’t think they showed it,” JDHS coach Robert Casperson said of his Crimson Bears. “We often talk about the best way to get rid of those nerves is to play super hard and I think we did that. Honestly, we had some great looks at the start of the game, and it could have been an opportunity for us to have a nice little lead at the start with a couple of three pointers and a layup that rolled off, stuff like that. We were doing things right, getting good looks. They weren’t dropping early, but the guys kept their composure, maintained their focus and kept battling. It was a fun game.”<\/p>\n
Neither team could find the basket until East sophomore guard Jamal Ozuna hit a layup with 4:22 remaining in the first quarter.<\/p>\n
A steal by East junior Kharmello Delaney led to a score by senior Deng Deng and the Thunderbirds were up 4-0. The two were scorers in last season’s state title game.<\/p>\n
JDHS senior Pedrin Saceda-Hurt hit from past the arc to cut the lead to 4-3 with 2:55 remaining and after East’s Delaney split defenders for a layup and 6-3 advantage, JDHS junior Joren Gasga hit from way past the arc to tie the game with two minutes left in the quarter.<\/p>\n
JDHS junior Brandon Casperson gave the Crimson Bears a 9-6 lead with a deep shot and East’s Delaney matched that distance to knot the score again.<\/p>\n
A hard-fought rebound and follow by JDHS junior Elias Dybdahl gave the Crimson Bears a 11-9 lead after eight minutes. Dybdahl and seniors Ben Sikes and Ahmir Parker were key for the Crimson Bears on the offensive and defensive boards to set the tone of play.<\/p>\n
JDHS opened the second quarter in charge from distance with Gasga draining a three for a 14-9 lead.<\/p>\n
East answered inside with a rebound by senior Jal Tharjiah and layup by Deng to close to 14-11. Tharjiah also had state title game time last season.<\/p>\n
Gasga went distance again and Saceda-Hurt did the same for a 20-16 lead with five minutes left in the half.<\/p>\n
“We were all looking forward to going against them,” Gasga said. “Me and Pedrin, we played them last year so we knew the matchups and who should guard who, and just went off from there…I was feeling good. No one was putting a hand up so I thought I would just play and just put the ball up whenever I could and found my teammates open, too. We all contributed as a team and did good.”<\/p>\n
Gasga and Saceda-Hurt met many of the East roster in last season’s state championship game when the Thunderbirds defeated the now-defunct Thunder Mountain High School Falcons 60-34. The two were the only underclassmen on that senior-laden TMHS squad that graduated 10 players.<\/p>\n
East graduated six from their title roster, but featured a returning cast that likes to pressure shooters.<\/p>\n
“We knew that East was a very talented team,” Saceda-Hurt said. “I think me and Joren knew how good they were, obviously, so we just tried to kind of get the team ready for the game we were about to play…Our coach always tells us box out or finish the play with a box out, and I think we took that and emphasized that every defensive play because they really were taller than us, so we knew we would not get the easy boards or get the boards whenever. So we had to finish with a box out and secure the rebound, and then move to the offensive side.”<\/p>\n
A three-point play by East’s Delaney brought the Thunderbirds to 20-19, but JDHS’ Casperson hit a free throw for a 21-19 lead.<\/p>\n
East tied the game with a step back jumper from senior Muhammed Sabally, the top scorer in last season’s title game, bringing the score to 21-21.<\/p>\n
Gasga gave JDHS the two-point lead and East tied the game at 23 with a steal by Delaney.<\/p>\n
East took their first lead since their opening score on a deep three by Tharjiah for 26-23, but JDHS fought back as Casperson hit two free throws and Saceda-Hurt notched a jumper for a 27-26 advantage.<\/p>\n
After Delaney scored for East’s 28-27 advantage, JDHS would take their final lead of the game with a shot in the key on a screen and roll by junior Damian Efergan for a 29-28 lead.<\/p>\n
East would close the half with a three-point shot by sophomore Jamal Ozuna, a steal and score by junior Braeden Speakman, and a mid-range jumper by Deng to lead 35-29. Ozuna also found state title game time last season.<\/p>\n
East opened the second half with a block by Deng, leading to a scoring drive by Speakman and after a JDHS three by Saceda-Hurt, East answered with a drive by Ozuna for a 39-32 lead.<\/p>\n
JDHS’ Gasga cut that to 39-34 but East would go on a 10-5 run to take a 49-39 lead. JDHS senior Gavin Gerrin hit from distance in that flurry and Dybdahl from the baseline.<\/p>\n
The run forced a JDHS timeout and after the rest, East came out with 10 unanswered points to take a commanding 59-39 lead as the third quarter expired.<\/p>\n
JDHS kept the damage from getting any deeper in the fourth quarter and battled through to the 71-54 ending.<\/p>\n
Although the final score was in favor of East, the experience for JDHS was immeasurable as they work to earn region and state prominence.<\/p>\n
“A game like that and traveling all this way is kind of wasted if we don’t get guys an opportunity to play and build a little depth in that respect so they have a little to draw from and lean on in our future games,” coach Casperson said. “East is the number one team in the state for a reason and what was nice is that we were right in the mix with them through that whole first half. And it is not like we are doing anything crazy athletically. We are just battling really hard. That was by far our best game blocking out. That’s a skill, but it doesn’t take a lot of talent to block somebody out…If we can keep doing that type of stuff and build on success from this game I like our chances moving forward.”<\/p>\n
Gasga led JDHS with 14 points, Saceda-Hurt added 13, Casperson nine, Dybdahl six, Parker and Gerrin three apiece, Efergan, senior Ben Sikes and junior Tyler Frisby two each.<\/p>\n
The Crimson Bears hit 4-10 at the free throw line, the Thunderbirds 7-9.<\/p>\n
Deng led East with 20 points, Sebally added 14, Ozuna and Delaney 13 apiece, Tharjiah seven and Speakman four.<\/p>\n
“Everybody rose to the occasion,” coach Casperson said of his roster. “Guys that came off the bench played well in the time that they had. Nobody got out there and looked completely overwhelmed. And that hasn’t always been the case when you play against a team like East. So that was a good sign for us.”<\/p>\n
East improved to 7-0 overall and lead the 4A Cook Inlet Conference with a 2-0 record.<\/p>\n
JDHS, 5-10 overall (0-2 in the 4A Southeast Conference), played three of the state’s top 10 schools in the tournament.<\/p>\n
The Crimson Bears also fell to fourth-ranked (via RPI – Ranking Percentage Index) Colony 64-54 on Thursday and 10th ranked Monroe 84-71 Friday.<\/p>\n
JDHS will host the Mt. Edgecumbe Braves, the state’s fourth-ranked 3A team (via RPI) on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 at the George Houston Gymnasium.<\/p>\n
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Crimson Bears lead much of first half before losing 71-54 to East Anchorage. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":957,"featured_media":115130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,6],"tags":[203,240],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-115129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-sports","tag-sportbasketball","tag-high-school-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115129","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\/957"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115129"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=115129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}