Headed into last weekend\u2019s regular season finale, the Juneau-Douglas High School boys basketball team had lost five of their six Southeast Conference games this season.<\/p>\n
Regardless of his team\u2019s conference record, JDHS head coach Robert Casperson liked his team\u2019s chances against the Thunder Mountain Falcons in the Thunderdome Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes to believing in my team \u2013 of course, I always believe in them,\u201d he said. \u201cThese guys are working hard. We\u2019re trying different things with our game plans and they are executing.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a convincing 58-40 win Saturday over Thunder Mountain, he\u2019s likely not alone in his assessment of the reigning state champions.<\/p>\n
The Falcons (13-9, 4-4 SE) were outscored by 20 points in the second half and the Crimson Bears (13-9, 3-5 SE) ran away with the game in the third quarter before a lively Thunderdome crowd.<\/p>\n
Erik Kelly scored a game-high 18 points for the Crimson Bears. Chase Saviers and Noah Reishus-O\u2019Brien, two of the nine seniors recognized pre-game by the Falcons, scored 12 apiece.<\/p>\n
Thunder Mountain\u2019s two losses on the weekend make the Ketchikan Kings the No. 1 seed in the 4A Region V basketball tournament this week. JDHS and TMHS will square off for the third time in five days Tuesday night at 8:15 p.m. in the first round of the double-elimination tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last time we played them, Chase had 40 and Noah had 27,\u201d JDHS guard Kolby Hoover said of the Feb. 3-4 series between the two schools. \u201cWe were just trying to shut those two guys down and make the other guys make plays. It seemed to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoover scored 13 points but prevented many more thanks to his shutdown defense on Reishus O\u2019Brien, who scored 12 points in Saturday\u2019s contest.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a 6-4 guard with 6-7 arms, his wingspan is ridiculous and that\u2019s tough for guys to go against,\u201d Casperson said of Hoover.<\/p>\n
Both teams pushed the ball in the first quarter but missed everything they threw at the rim. The Crimson Bears missed seven of their first nine shots, and the Falcons nine of their first 10.<\/p>\n
Thunder Mountain took a 14-13 lead two minutes into the second quarter. Reishus-O\u2019Brien scored six straight points as JDHS turned the ball over on back-to-back possessions thanks to a well-executed half-court trap. After leading by as many as eight, the Falcons held a 25-23 edge at halftime.<\/p>\n
Hoover tied the game on his first shot of the third quarter before Kelly\u2019s offense and Bryce Swofford\u2019s defense took Thunder Mountain out of the game. The Crimson Bears went on a 16-3 run in the third quarter and led 41-31 to start the fourth.<\/p>\n
The visiting team\u2019s defense didn\u2019t let up in the fourth quarter, and Thunder Mountain played eight or more points behind for the rest of the game.<\/p>\n
Hoover is ready to begin the regional tournament: \u201cWith three wins in the region straight \u2013 I\u2019m feeling pretty good about our chances.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pusich\u2019s 19-point effort carries JDHS over Thunder Mountain<\/strong><\/p>\n For the second straight night, the Thunder Mountain girls basketball team used their defense to keep them in the game, but sophomore guard Caitlin Pusich came alive in the third quarter and helped Juneau-Douglas to a 48-35 win.<\/p>\n Pusich scored a game-high 19 points \u2014 including eight in the third quarter \u2014 while Alyxn Bohulano and Georgia Robinson added nine and seven respectively.<\/p>\n The Falcons one-two punch of Nina Fenumiai and Kyra Jenkens-Hayes scored 21 combined points while anchoring defense that furnished six first-half turnovers.<\/p>\n The Thunder Mountain (2-18, 0-8 SE) defense frustrated the Crimson Bears (18-4, 7-1 SE) early on, but the Falcons scored just four points in the opening quarter.<\/p>\n The Falcons found some offense in the second quarter at the free throw line, luring JDHS into making fouls with aggressive cuts to the basket. TMHS shot 11 free throws in the second quarter to JDHS\u2019 four.<\/p>\n With the game still up for grabs after halftime, Pusich showed why she\u2019s an elite scorer. The sophomore shooting guard used her height and speed advantage to put up eight points in just over a minute in the third frame. The Falcons twice fouled Pusich on made 2-point attempts \u2014 both bank shots.<\/p>\n \u201c[Coach] Knight always gets mad at me because I don\u2019t go for the backboard shots and just do floaters, so I\u2019ve been trying to work on doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n Kyra Jenkens-Hayes scored eight of the Falcons\u2019 13 total third quarter points and JDHS led 32-26 after three quarters.<\/p>\n Thunder Mountain was over the foul limit before the fourth quarter started, helping JDHS seal their victory at the free-throw line.<\/p>\n The 4A girls Region V basketball tournament kicks off Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. TMHS face Ketchikan in the opening round.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nolin.ainsworth@juneauempire.com.<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Headed into last weekend\u2019s regular season finale, the Juneau-Douglas High School boys basketball team had lost five of their six Southeast Conference games this season. Regardless of his team\u2019s conference record, JDHS head coach Robert Casperson liked his team\u2019s chances against the Thunder Mountain Falcons in the Thunderdome Friday and Saturday. \u201cWhen it comes to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":425,"featured_media":0,"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-22867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22867","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\/425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22867"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=22867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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