The Juneau-Douglas High School girl’s basketball team wrapped up the number one seed for the Region V tournament by sweeping Ketchikan 42-36 on Saturday and 45-43 Friday at the Kings home gym.
The Crimson Bears (5-1 Southeast Conference, 12-10 Overall) held the Lady Kings (4-4 SE) to just four points in the opening quarter on Saturday, opening a 9-4 advantage and holding a 19-16 halftime lead.
“It was a pretty great game,” JDHS coach Dee Boster said. “It was a really good win for us on the road.”
Normally an Achilles heel for the Crimson Bears are free throws, but the Crimson Bears hit 21-24 from the charity stripe in the game including 5-6 in a crucial stretch in the fourth quarter.
“That was what won the game for us,” Boster said. “Plus we turned on our defense in the fourth quarter.”
Senior Gabi Fenumiai, who recently committed to play basketball at Peninsula College, led JDHS with 18 points.
Senior Marissa Brakes scored nine, included shooting a perfect 6-6 at the line. Four of those free throws were in the last stanza in which Brakes scored seven, Fenumiai nine and JDHS outscored the Lady Kings 18-6.
Senior Esra Siddeek scored seven points, including all five of the Crimson Bears third quarter production. The Lady Kings scored 14 points in the third quarter and took a 30-24 lead into the fourth.
Junior Kaitlin Fagerstrom added five points, junior Kymberlee Kelly two and senior Amberli Fitka one. Kayhi was led by Jaylee Taylor’s 13 points, Bayley Lindgren added 10, Alexis Biggerstaff four, Eliah Anderson three, Charlie Edwardson, Lizzie Carson, and Mykayla Brown-Harrison two each. The Lady Kings were 13-21 at the free throw line.
“We are really looking forward to next weekend and getting ready for Thunder Mountain,” Boster said. “It was a good way to end our last travel trip before regions and the kids are playing with a lot of confidence now and it is kind of fun to see.”
JDHS will travel cross town to Thunder Mountain (1-5 SE, 7-15 OA) this weekend. The games will not affect the conference tournament seeding, but will be crucial for momentum going into those Southeast Region V Tournament games at Mt. Edgecumbe High School on March 2-5. The tourney is a double-elimination format, meaning a team has to lose twice to be denied the region title and a trip to state.
JDHS will get a first round bye and await the winner of TMHS and Kayhi in the semifinals.
Friday: JDHS 45, Kayhi 43
The Crimson Bears held their breath just once at Ketchikan on Friday night.
That one time being when the Kings’ Taylor put up a last second jump shot that would have won or tied the game for the hosts.
Instead the shot missed and the Crimson Bears survived a double-digit fourth-quarter comeback by Ketchikan for a 45-43 win.
“We were up by 12 and they just turned on the heat,” Boster said. “That last play of the game, I think everyone in the gym was watching what was about to happen when that shot went up. When it didn’t go in I wasn’t excited, I was shocked it did not go in the hoop.”
Up to that point Taylor had hit four three-pointers and tallied a team-high 14 points for the Lady Kings.
Sophomore Rachelle Roldan hit two free throws with just under a minute remaining in the game to give the Crimson Bears a one point lead and Brakes hit one-of-two 20 seconds later for the two-point spread.
JDHS scored just eight points in the fourth quarter.
“We probably had five turnovers in a row because they put the press on,” Boster said. “It was a pretty scrappy press, nothing that we haven’t seen, but we just panicked. We like to do that apparently. I would guess they will press us the next game. This was a good win for us. It is tough to win here in Ketchikan, they have a tough crowd.”
JDHS led 10-7 starting the second quarter and 22-19 at the half. They were up 10, 37-27 after three quarters of play and ahead by as many as 14 in the fourth quarter before the Lady Kings made a surge.
Fenumiai led the Crimson Bears with 15 points, Siddeek added nine, junior Kelly six, Brakes and Fitka three apiece, senior Emily Winters, junior Kayla Balovich, Roldan, and Fagerstrom two each.
JDHS hit 12-26 from the charity stripe, Kayhi went 9-16.
Brooke Simmons added nine for Ketchikan, Biggerstaff eight, Lindgren seven, and Faith Clark five.
