Sports
The Crimson Bears served up a dominant third quarter of their own, fought off a late charge from Ketchikan and escaped with a 75-69 victory Thursday night to sweep the best-of-three Southeast Conference Championship Series at KayHi.
Bears sweep Kings 030609 SPORTS 1 JUNEAU EMPIRE The Crimson Bears served up a dominant third quarter of their own, fought off a late charge from Ketchikan and escaped with a 75-69 victory Thursday night to sweep the best-of-three Southeast Conference Championship Series at KayHi.

Klas Stolpe / Petersburg Pilot

Crimson Bears head coach Steve Potter cuts down the nets following Thursday night's victory.


Klas Stolpe / Petersburg Pilot

JDHS senior Alex Fagerstrom rises up for two points in Thursday night's 75-69 Southeast Conference Championship Series victory over Ketchikan.

Click Thumbnails to View
Friday, March 06, 2009

Story last updated at 3/6/2009 - 9:42 am

Bears sweep Kings

JDHS outscores KayHi 21-8 in 3rd Thursday night to close out SEC title

The Crimson Bears served up a dominant third quarter of their own, fought off a late charge from Ketchikan and escaped with a 75-69 victory Thursday night to sweep the best-of-three Southeast Conference Championship Series at KayHi.

The Juneau-Douglas High School boys basketball team outscored their hosts 21-8 in the third quarter Thursday night, a day after being hurt by a 15-6 run from the Kings in the third stanza of Wednesday's 64-62 victory. The Bears escaped from that game on a last-second three-pointer from senior Sean Bavard.

JDHS needed Thursday's post-halftime run to pull out of a 41-32 halftime hole after being outscored by Ketchikan 27-15 in the second period, and visibly losing their cool with an early technical foul.

Junior wing Cody Grussendorf dominated the ball and the third quarter for Juneau-Douglas, taking 12 of his 19 trips to the charity stripe in the period. Grussendorf connected on eight of those attempts and finished with a game-high 18 points.

The third period included eight KayHi turnovers during a 15-0 JDHS run that was capped by a tough bucket inside from Eric Gross that put the Bears up 50-43 with just over a minute remaining.

Gross, JDHS' leading scorer, picked up two quick fouls and a trip to the bench in the game's opening two minutes, but guard Alex DeRocher quickly soothed any hard feelings towards the officials. The junior replaced Gross and hit on hit his first two shots from behind the three-point line to lift the Bears to an early 8-6 lead.

DeRocher would finish with 12 points, all on deep balls after connecting for two more in the fourth period. Gross would stay on the bench for the entire first half, but played productive minutes in the second half and did not pick up his third whistle until early in the fourth quarter.

DeRocher's baskets sparked a 9-1 JDHS run that was capped by a leaning three-pointer from senior guard Sean Bavard to take a 17-10 lead. A pair of offensive rebounds and putbacks from Ketchikan eventually cut the deficit to 17-14 to end the opening period.

The second quarter took a dark turn for the Bears, as the Kings jumped out on a 13-4 run that was capped by three free throws after JDHS senior wing Corey Mahar was simultaneously called for a personal and a technical foul for arguing with the officials.

Ketchikan continued to run wild as they racked up 27 points in the quarter and briefly stretched their lead to 12 on a deep three- pointer from senior Matt Carpenter. A tough interior bucket from JDHS junior post Paul Tupou in the final seconds eventually cut the Juneau-Douglas deficit to 41-32 at halftime.

The Bears led just 53-49 after a pair of putbacks form Ketchikan junior Jeff Whicker closed the gap to end the third period. JDHS' lead looked vulnerable to start the fourth, but DeRocher quickly connected on his third trifecta to push the lead back to seven at the top of the period. DeRocher answered another Ketchikan run to again extend Juneau-Douglas' lead to seven just two minutes later.

The Kings closed within 66-63 with 2:30 remaining in the period after senior Matt Carpenter connected on a deep three-ball and pulled within 73-68 in the final 30 seconds, but JDHS responded each time with clutch free throws. The Crimson Bears took a whopping 45 free throw attempts in the game as the physical battle wound down with plenty of whistles. They hit on just 24 of those attempts, but hit just enough down the stretch to hang on for the win.

Bavard contributed a trio of three-pointers of his own in the game, finishing with nine points. Sophomore Colin Gozelski came up big with 11 points during the third quarter run off the bench and finished with 14. Senior Alex Fagerstom finished with nine, including some clutch free throws down the stretch. Gross ended up with six points in the win.

Whicker led Ketchikan with 16 points and eight rebounds, while Carpenter chipped in 12 and Chase Scudero added 10 and nine rebounds. Paul Manabat added 11 points.


Classifieds







Top Jobs

Loading...

Top Homes

Loading...

Top Rentals

Loading...

Top Boats

Loading...

Top Autos

Loading...



Facebook
Twitter
News
Share
Shop
Life
Visit