Take away the second quarter of Friday night’s girls basketball game, and the Thunder Mountain Falcons kept up pretty well with Juneau-Douglas High School.
After scoring 12 points to keep pace with the Crimson Bears in the first quarter, the Falcons’ offense went cold in the second, unable to record a single point. Meanwhile, JDHS scored 13 unanswered points on its way to a 53-33 win at TMHS.
It was the first of four times the two teams will square off this season. JDHS won in all four regular season games against TMHS last season. The teams played again on Saturday night, with both teams looking to pick up their third win of the season.
Nina Fenumiai — the Falcons leading scorer this season — picked up two quick fouls and could only watch from the bench as JDHS took over in the second quarter.
“First quarter, we were putting the ball up — obviously not all of them were falling — but we were getting some good looks,” TMHS head coach Chandler Christensen said. “And then second quarter, I think we stopped looking to score and I think that’s where we fell behind pretty bad.”
Sisters Caitlin and Janae Pusich scored 27 total points in the win. In addition, Sadie Tuckwood scored eight, Alyxn Bohulano seven and Cassie Dzinich six.
Fenumiai furnished 12 points in the loss, all of which came in the second half.
TMHS clung to a three-point lead for two brief instances in the first quarter but JDHS took a 14-12 lead with 12 seconds left in the quarter.
Caitlin Pusich said the team expected the Falcons to come out with some fire.
“It’s their home court, so they were going to play really hard, so we just had to play a lot harder,” she said.
The Crimson Bears led 27-12 at halftime. The pace slowed in the third quarter and Fenumiai found a rhythm on offense for the first time in the game.
The Falcons’ 21 points in the second half were not enough to cut into the Crimson Bears’ lead, though.
JDHS shot 65 percent from the free throw line on 16 attempts; TMHS shot just 36 percent on five fewer attempts.
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nolin.ainsworth@juneauempire.com.
