Halfway through the first quarter of Juneau-Douglas High School\u2019s blowout win over visiting independent Valor Christian, six-foot-seven senior forward Bryce Swofford nearly dunked (his fingers just grazing the rim), then turned around and ran the court to block a layup from Valor\u2019s Joshua Botsford.<\/p>\n
The play showcased Swofford\u2019s ability on both sides of the ball as he dominated the early stages of Wednesday\u2019s 91-23 win. His most important contribution, however, may have come from the bench.<\/p>\n
Instead of tuning out as JDHS\u2019 lead ballooned (47-11 by half) and head coach Robert Casperson substituted in his bench, Swofford and the rest of the starters cheered their less experienced teammates on.<\/p>\n
The Crimson Bears used every minute of the game to deepen their experience and hone their fundamentals in anticipation of conference play.<\/p>\n
Buoyed by the support of his teammates, senior forward Jordan Milligan \u2014 who put up eight points on the night \u2014 benefitted from the extra work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s important, it makes us feel more like a family and trust each other more,\u201d Milligan said of the squad\u2019s camaraderie. \u201cI\u2019m just trying to do whatever I can to help the team win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sophomore guard John Hamrick, playing in his second game on varsity, said he was \u201ca little nervous\u201d before taking the court. Like Milligan, Hamrick played with confidence Wednesday, saying he \u201csweated off\u201d any nerves on the way to nine points.<\/p>\n
As the Crimson Bears\u2019 schedule progresses, head coach Robert Casperson said, the strength of their bench will become more and more important.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re building depth because we\u2019re getting guys more minutes, more comfortable on the court. That should translate down the road when there\u2019s injuries, illness, where guys coming off the bench will be comfortable in their roles and just ready to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
A dozen different Crimson Bears scored on the night, with seven of those players scoring more than eight points each. Junior Erik Kelly led all scorers with 17, followed by Swofford\u2019s 14, Luke Mallinger and Ulyx Bohulano\u2019s 12 and Hamrick\u2019s nine.<\/p>\n
Championship rematch set for Friday<\/strong><\/p>\n JDHS and visiting Dimond High School, who the Crimson Bears beat 38-31 in the state championship game last year, will face off at 7 p.m. Friday in a true championship ending to the Capital City Classic. Both teams come into the final game with two wins in the tournament, meaning the winner of that game will claim bragging rights as the Classic champions.<\/p>\n Dimond looks strong in their CCC play so far, having logged comparable wins to JDHS over common opponents: JDHS beat Haines 71-43 while Dimond took the Glacier Bears 85-24; Dimond won over Valor 89-14.<\/p>\n Casperson said that game will be \u201ca lot of fun\u201d and that Dimond looks \u201creally strong\u201d so far having returned most of their team. Look for coverage of that game online at juneauempire.com and in Sunday\u2019s print edition.<\/p>\n CRIMSON BEARS 91, KNIGHTS 23<\/strong><\/p>\n Juneau-Douglas 30 37 17 7 \u201491<\/p>\n Valor 5 6 7 5 \u201423<\/p>\n Juneau-Douglas (91) \u2014 Bradley 1, Watts 8, Hamrick<\/p>\n 9, Beelitz 3, Bohulano 12, Swofford 14, Shapland-Murray 2, Milligan 8, Kelly 17, Samtani 3, Mallinger 12, Lozada 2<\/p>\n Valor (23) \u2014 Botsford 7, Taylor 4, Osborn 2, Chamber<\/p>\n 1, Littlejohn 8, Darling 1<\/p>\n Free throws \u2014 Juneau-Douglas 6-14, Valor 6-14<\/p>\n 3-point goals \u2014 Juneau-Douglas 3, Valor 1<\/p>\n Team fouls \u2014 Juneau-Douglas 10, Valor 12<\/p>\n Other Wednesday Capital City Classic games<\/strong><\/p>\n GLACIER BEARS 24, LYNX 85<\/strong><\/p>\n Haines 3 8 9 4 \u2014 24<\/p>\n Dimond 20 33 25 7 \u2014 85<\/p>\n Haines (24) \u2014 Palmieri 8, Light 6, Cunningham 2, Jacobson 2, Fowler 2, Stigen 2, Clay 1, Sage 1<\/p>\n Dimond (85) \u2014 Heim 8, Gates-Magnusson 19, Sherman 5, Osborne 4, Parker 4, Boese 5, Moore 4, Horning 2, Tufaga 2, Jenkins 23, Ainuu 4, White 5<\/p>\n Free throws \u2014 Haines 8-18, Dimond 4-8<\/p>\n 3-point goals \u2014 Haines 2, Dimond 11<\/p>\n Team fouls \u2014 Haines 12, Dimond 16<\/p>\n FALCONS 16, CHARGERS 56<\/strong><\/p>\n Thunder Mountain 5 4 4 3 \u2014 16<\/p>\n Marysville Getchell 20 18 11 7 \u2014 56<\/p>\n Thunder Mountain (16) \u2014 Lewis 2, Luna 4, Fenumiai 1, Jenkins-Hayes 9<\/p>\n Marysville Getchell (56) \u2014 Noriega 3, Norton 2, Wika 12, G. Grandbois 13, Green 2, Palm 7, M. Grandbois 12, Hammer 1, Taylor 4<\/p>\n Free throws \u2014 Thunder Mountain 4-6, Marysville Getchell 3-9<\/p>\n 3-point goals \u2014 Thunder Mountain 0, Marysville Getchell 1<\/p>\n Team fouls \u2014 Thunder Mountain 7, Marysville Getchell 10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Halfway through the first quarter of Juneau-Douglas High School\u2019s blowout win over visiting independent Valor Christian, six-foot-seven senior forward Bryce Swofford nearly dunked (his fingers just grazing the rim), then turned around and ran the court to block a layup from Valor\u2019s Joshua Botsford. The play showcased Swofford\u2019s ability on both sides of the ball […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":15148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-15147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15147","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=15147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15147"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=15147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}