The Thunder Mountain boys basketball team used an all-around team effort to upset one of the hottest teams in the state on Friday.<\/p>\n
Brady Carandang and Bryson Echiverri made deep 3-pointers and Puna and Meki Toutaiolepo finished strong inside to power a 62-55 Falcons win over Ketchikan, who scorched its past two Friday opponents<\/a> by 40 and 20 points respectively.<\/p>\n “We talk about it a lot, we just haven’t done it very well where you establish inside presence, and that makes the defense make adjustments that will open up your outside game,” TMHS coach John Blasco said. “I was thankful enough we were able to get a little space for our shooters to be able to knock down shots late. Brady and Oliver (Mendoza) and Bryson hit some pretty important threes late in the game.”<\/p>\n [Junior-heavy Falcons seek Region V redemption<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n Carandang, a junior, finished with 17 points and Echiverri, also a junior, added 16 points while dishing out a number of assists to the Toutaiolepo brothers.<\/p>\n “We had trust in everybody,” Echiverri said. “I would tell every person I pass to, ‘Shoot the ball.’ And they did.”<\/p>\n University of Alaska Fairbanks-bound senior Marcus Lee scored 21 points in the loss. Younger brother Chris Lee, who eclipsed the 1,000-point plateau<\/a> earlier in the month by averaging 20 points a game, went for 14.<\/p>\n “We tried to fight,” Marcus said. “We were down the whole game pretty much. We made a lot of mistakes tonight, we know we’re not perfect. We’ll lose games sometimes.”<\/p>\n The Falcons closed the third quarter on a 9-2 run to take a 43-40 lead. Carandang, Echiverri and Puna Toutaiolepo each hit a 3-pointer in that stretch.<\/p>\n