A single point gave the Thunder Mountain High School girls basketball team its 12th win of the season.
Thursday, TMHS hosted Mount Edgecumbe High School for a game in which neither team could stake out a lead of more than 6 points. Despite only outscoring MEHS in one quarter, the Lady Falcons improved their record to 12-6 (1-1, in-conference) in large part due to clutch free-throw shooting and late defense from sophomores Kerra and Cailynn Baxter.
The win comes ahead of a pair of games likely to be hard-fought.
The TMHS girls were set to play at Ketchikan High School on Friday —after the Empire’s print deadline —and Saturday. The two teams split two close games earlier this season in the Thunder Dome.
Much further from home, the Thunder Mountain High School boys lost to Monroe Catholic High School of Fairbanks, 53-45, on Wednesday.
A bombastic 21-point first quarter from MCHS that saw Jeff McCullough sink four 3-pointers made the game an uphill battle, as TMHS mustered 12 points in the first.
By the end of the third quarter, the Falcons trailed by only 3 points — 42-39 — but the Rams held on to win.
McCullough led all scorers with 21 total points.
Junior Samuel Lockhart led TMHS with 14 points, including three 3-pointers of his own in the third quarter. Thomas Baxter, also a junior, was close behind with 13 points.
After the loss, the TMHS boys now sport a 4-12 record (0-2 in-conference). The game against Monroe was a start of a streak of road games in which TMHS will also play North Pole, Lathrop and West Valley.
• Contact Ben Hohenstatt at (907)308-4895 or bhohenstatt@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BenHohenstatt.
