The TMHS boys shut down West Valley\u2019s leading scorers Jaden Whiteside and Cornelius Mingo Jr. Saturday, but the Wolfpack\u2019s role players filled the void to garner the visitors their only win in their four-game trip to the capital city.<\/p>\n
West Valley defeated Thunder Mountain 76-62.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came out slow again tonight, but the big difference today (Saturday) was the third quarter,\u201d TMHS\u2019 Noah Reishus-O\u2019Brien said. \u201cYou can\u2019t come out slow to start both halves. That really killed us tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Falcons went down 10-0 to start Friday\u2019s game, and again let the Wolfpack establish dominance early in Saturday\u2019s game, going down 2-11 early.<\/p>\n
Reishus-O\u2019Brien led the team in scoring with a game-high 23 points. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s learned a bit about his team in the four games the Falcons have played so far against West Valley, a series which the teams have split.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone can come out and do good,\u201d he said. \u201cWe stopped their main scorers, but it\u2019s those other guys you have to keep an eye out for.\u201d<\/p>\n
West Valley junior Jaquarious Ward \u2014 seldom the leading scorer for his team \u2014 put up 23 on 11 field goals and a free throw. No other West Valley player had more than 13.<\/p>\n
The Wolfpack harbor championship aspirations, and after losing three straight games in which they had a lead, the visitors wanted this one bad.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was tough coming down here to Juneau and playing these tough teams on their home courts,\u201d Mingo Jr. said of their four game tilt against Juneau\u2019s two high school programs. \u201cWe needed to learn how to close and we came together as a team tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like we could go all the way,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be tough road, it\u2019s not going to be easy, but I feel like we can get the job done and bring a ring back to the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Falcons hit eight threes in Saturday\u2019s game, they had 12 in a previous game against West Valley, which the Falcons won.<\/p>\n
The Thunder Mountain boys next play at the AK Prep Shootout Jan. 13 and 14 at Dimond High School. Dimond is currently ranked No. 1 in the state according to an Alaska Association of Basketball Coaches poll.<\/p>\n
Neither Juneau team has yet made the poll\u2019s top five this year. <\/p>\n
WOLFPACK 76,<\/strong><\/p>\n FALCONS 62<\/strong><\/p>\n Thunder Mountain 11 17 7 27 \u2014 76<\/p>\n West Valley 13 19 23 21 \u2014 62<\/p>\n Thunder Mountain (62) \u2014 Reishus-O\u2019Brien 24, Saviers 22, McAndrews 6, Clark 6, Olsen 2, Carandang 2<\/p>\n West Valley (76) \u2014 Ward 23, Peter 13, Davis 10, Erhart 10, Winfrey 7, Whiteside 5, Mingo Jr. 4, Keeton 2, Fields-Colbert 2<\/p>\n Free throws \u2014 Thunder Mountain 14-20, West Valley 10-19<\/p>\n 3-point goals \u2014 Thunder Mountain 8, West Valley 4<\/p>\n Team fouls \u2014 Thunder Mountain 21, West Valley 18<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The TMHS boys shut down West Valley\u2019s leading scorers Jaden Whiteside and Cornelius Mingo Jr. Saturday, but the Wolfpack\u2019s role players filled the void to garner the visitors their only win in their four-game trip to the capital city. West Valley defeated Thunder Mountain 76-62. \u201cWe came out slow again tonight, but the big difference […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":32000,"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-31999","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\/31999","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=31999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31999"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=31999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}