JDHS one win away from second consecutive Region V championship

Two hours, five minutes of game time.

106 total points.

51 total fouls.

Five players fouled out of the game.

And 1.5 seconds that took 20 minutes to elapse due to the JDHS gym lights turning off.

The circumstances couldn’t have been any stranger — or satisfying — Friday night for the Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears boys basketball team. Facing elimination from the 4A Boys Region V tournament, the Crimson Bears came back from a seven-point fourth-quarter deficit to win in overtime, 55-51, over the Ketchikan Kings.

JDHS can win its second consecutive Region V championship with a win Saturday at 8:30 p.m. at JDHS. The rematch will be JDHS’ fourth game in five days, having worked its way out of the loser’s bracket with a win over Thunder Mountain Thursday.

Erik Kelly and Bryce Swofford combined for 30 points to extend their season at least one more game. Ulyx Bohulano and Kolby Hoover limited Ketchikan’s dynamic Marcus and Chris Lee to 11 and four points respectively.

“Ulyx has stepped up huge for us on both sides of the ball,” JDHS head coach Robert Casperson said. “He is playing very solid defense on very difficult players with some great offensive capabilities.”

“Kolby is just relishing this opportunity to let his defense create some offensive opportunities for him,” Casperson added. “It’s impressive.”

After four lead changes in the third quarter, Ketchikan established the lead for all but 51 seconds in the fourth quarter. After sitting in the third quarter with four fouls, Bryce Swofford checked in to begin the fourth, scoring eight of the Crimson Bears’ next 11 points.

Trailing by four with under two minutes to go, Swofford caught the ball at the top of the key and drove past Ketchikan’s Robert Seludo before laying the ball up for two and a foul.

Swofford missed the free throw and Seludo went to the line 12 seconds later for two foul shots, missing both (Ketchikan was in the double bonus).

After a Swofford miss, Kasey Watts drew a foul and made one of two free throws.

Marcus Lee’s layup attempt was swatted away by Erik Kelly, who tied the game at 46-46 with 51.8 seconds left by making one of two free throws.

Kayhi came out of a timeout and cycled the ball around the perimeter for 29 seconds before taking another timeout with 18.7 seconds remaining, when three-point specialist Kristian Pihl checked in to the game.

The 5-foot-7 freshman’s clean 3-point look with eight seconds remaining fell short, however. Swofford got the rebound and fed the ball to Ulyx Bohulano, who lost the ball at half-court, just after Casperson called a timeout with 1.5 seconds remaining.

Then things got weird.

During the timeout, all the lights in the gym went out, and after two two tries, slowly came back on. After 20 minutes of darkness or near-darkness and an impromptu shootaround for both teams, Luke Mallinger was too strong on his inbound lob to Swofford, sending the game to overtime.

Ketchikan turned the ball over three consecutive times in overtime, and two Bohulano free throws gave JDHS a 52-48 lead with 28 seconds remaining.

After making a 3-pointer with 14.3 seconds remaining, Kayhi’s Jake Smith couldn’t convert two free throws to tie the game at 53.

“Never been involved in a game when the lights go out,” said Casperson.

“We have a rule in our program called the midnight rule, so you only get to enjoy a win or [dwell on a loss] until midnight. And so someone pointed out that it was already 11:45 and there’s not a lot of time for the boys to enjoy this before they got to turn their minds and focus again on playing tomorrow.”

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Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nolin.ainsworth@juneauempire.com,

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