Juneau boys finish sixth at Service tourney

The youthful Juneau-Douglas High School boys basketball team made progress this weekend, but not enough to keep from posting a 1-3 record in its season-opening road trip to Anchorage.

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The Crimson Bears beat Class 2A Point Hope-Tikigaq 73-35 in Friday's consolation action at the Service Cougar Tip-Off Classic at Service High School. On Saturday, the Crimson Bears rallied from 11 points down in the third quarter, but they lost 48-45 to defending Class 4A state runner-up Wasilla in the tournament's fifth-sixth place game.

East Anchorage won the tournament late Saturday night with a 73-48 victory over Barrow, which beat Juneau 64-60 in Thursday's tournament opener. Senior guard Alex Heumann was Juneau's only representative on the all-tournament team.

"I think we learned something," Juneau coach George Houston said of the road trip, which also saw Juneau lose to two-time Class 4A state champion Bartlett on Wednesday. "We were able to gain some experience. Now we'll spend the next week seeing if we can learn from our deficiencies and learn from our mistakes."

In Friday's game, Juneau jumped out to a 14-1 lead and was never threatened. Point Hope closed to within 10 points, 19-9, at the end of the first quarter, but Juneau went on a 21-3 run in the second quarter to put the game out of reach.

"We controlled things from the start," Houston said of Point Hope, which usually is a Class 2A power. "They're young and rebuilding, too. We were just better than they were."

Heumann scored 25 points and made four steals to lead the Crimson Bears. Senior forward Adam Nelson had 13 points for Juneau, while sophomore forward Josh Monagle added 10 points, junior swingman Tom Derbesy had eight points and nine rebounds and junior guard Larry Cooper scored eight points for the Bears. B.J. Weber scored 18 points to lead Point Hope, while Dennis Frankson added 12 points for the Harpooners.

On Saturday, Heumann hit a 3-pointer to open the game for Juneau's only lead of the night against Wasilla. The Warriors took a 16-6 lead at the end of the first quarter and still led 25-16 at halftime. The Crimson Bears closed to within 39-32 at the end of the third quarter, then made a fourth-quarter run to make things interesting at the end.

Heumann hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 41-41 with 3 minutes, 45 seconds left, and his two free throws a minute later tied the game again at 43-all. Brad Hobbs hit two free throws with about two minutes left to put Wasilla up 45-43, a lead it never relinquished. Both teams had chances to score, but the last points came in the final seconds of the game.

David Williams added another free throw with five seconds left to make it 46-43, but Juneau countered when Tres Saldivar hit two free throws a second later to make it 46-45 with four seconds to play. Hobbs made two more free throws with two seconds left for the final margin.

"We fell behind early and we were constantly playing catch-up," Houston said. "We had some plays and some opportunities, but we rushed our shots. I thought we battled back."

Despite the slow start to the season, Houston said his young team is making progress.

"From the first game against Bartlett, we got better," Houston said. "Even in the loss against Barrow, we played a lot better in the second half. It's a consistency thing. We're going to get better."

The Crimson Bear boys and girls teams host the Princess Cruises-Capital City Classic starting this Saturday. Both teams will hold alumni scrimmages on Tuesday, with the girls at 5 p.m. and the boys at 7 p.m. at the JDHS main gym.

Juneau JV boys win Dimond tourney

Luke Miller scored 19 points as the Juneau junior varsity team claimed the Dimond JV Jamboree title with a 46-43 victory over East Anchorage on Saturday night at Dimond High School.

In Friday's semifinals, Scott Lesh scored 16 points to lead the Crimson Bears to a 60-54 victory over Service. Juneau opened the tournament with Norman Zura scoring 14 points to lead the Crimson Bears to a 51-46 victory over Bartlett, one day after Bartlett beat Juneau 72-46.

"The kids played extremely hard," Juneau JV coach Steve Potter said. "East and Bartlett were super quick, and Service was gigantic. It was a change from what we see in Southeast and we learned how to win some close games."

• The Juneau Empire sports department can be reached at sports@juneauempire.com.

WARRIORS 48, CRIMSON BEARS 45

Saturday's boys boxscore from Service High School

JUNEAU-DOUGLAS (45) - Larry Cooper 1 0-2 2, Norman Zura 0 0-0 0, Scott Lesh 0 0-0 0, Tom Derbesy 0 1-1 2, Tres Saldivar 0 2-2 2, Luke Miller 0 0-0 0, Clae Baker 0 0-0 0, Alex Heumann 3 2-2 10, Rob Carte 1 1-1 3, Mychal Hutcherson 0 4-4 4, Josh Monagle 4 5-6 13, Kyle Huntsman 0 0-0 0, David Jones 2 1-2 5, Andrew Capacci 0 0-0 0, Adam Nelson 2 1-1 5. Totals: 13 17-22 45.

WASILLA (48) - Jesse Bean 2 0-0 4, Brad Hobbs 1 6-6 9, John Pahkala 0 0-0 0, Robbie Champion 3 0-0 6, Peter Blanchett 0 0-0 0, Ben Neher 1 0-0 2, Weston Espinoza 0 0-0 0, Matt Crane 3 1-2 7, Luke Schafer 2 0-0 4, Dustin Bragg 1 0-0 2, David Williams 6 2-3 14. Totals: 19 9-11 48.

JUNEAU-DOUGLAS 6 10 16 13 - 45

WASILLA 16 9 14 9 - 48

3-point goals - Juneau-Douglas 2 (Heumann 2), Wasilla 1 (Hobbs 1). Fouled out - Juneau-Douglas 0, Wasilla 2 (Crane, Schafer). Technical fouls - Juneau-Douglas 1 (Juneau bench 1), Wasilla 0. Total fouls - Juneau-Douglas 15, Wasilla 20.

CRIMSON BEARS 73, HARPOONERS 35

Friday's boys boxscore from Service High School

POINT HOPE-TIKIGAQ (35) - John Attungana 0 2-4 2, Fred Nashookpuk 0 0-0 0, Brian Tuzroyluke 0 1-2 1, Ollie Lane 0 0-0 0, Brett Oktollik 0 0-1 0, Lyle Nashookpuk 0 0-0 0, B.J. Weber 8 0-0 18, Peter Tingook 1 0-0 2, Dennis Frankson 5 1-2 12, Kayuktuq Oomittuk 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 4-9 35.

JUNEAU-DOUGLAS (73) - Larry Cooper 3 2-2 8, Norman Zura 0 0-0 0, Scott Lesh 0 0-0 0, Tom Derbesy 4 0-0 8, Tres Saldivar 2 0-0 4, Luke Miller 0 0-0 0, Clae Baker 0 0-0 0, Alex Heumann 9 3-3 25, Rob Carte 2 1-1 5, Josh Monagle 5 0-0 10, Kyle Huntsman 0 0-0 0, David Jones 0 0-0 0, Andrew Capacci 0 0-0 0, Adam Nelson 6 1-1 13. Totals: 31 7-7 73.

POINT HOPE-TIKIGAQ 9 3 8 15 - 35

JUNEAU-DOUGLAS 19 21 15 18 - 73

3-point goals - Point Hope-Tikigaq 3 (Weber 2, Frankson 1), Juneau-Douglas 4 (Heumann 4). Fouled out - None. Technical fouls - None. Total fouls - Point Hope-Tikigaq 10, Juneau-Douglas 14.