The Mt. Edgecumbe Lady Braves turned over a new leaf with a 52-22 victory on Friday against Thunder Mountain High School. The win broke a three-game losing streak that began when the Sitka squad returned to school from a monthlong winter break less than two weeks ago.
The only thing TMHS (3-9, 0-2 SEC) turned over was the basketball, thanks to a Lady Braves’ zone defense any basketball coach would envy.
Having struggled with maintaining conditioning in losses against Kotzebue and Barrow the week prior, Mt. Edgecumbe (5-3) had no trouble playing hard the entire 32 minutes Friday.
“We have really good outside shooters, and we have very strong inside shooters … and we have good rebounders,” Mt. Edgecumbe head coach Kathy Forrester said. “Really the only obstacle we’ve had this year is the conditioning when they were gone for a month.”
Lady Braves senior Paige Goodwin (13 points) and Catherine Sunny (nine points) scored their team’s first five buckets and Mt. Edgecumbe led 12-4 midway through the first quarter.
Goodwin and Sunny were two of five Mt. Edgecumbe players with seven or more points in the game.
Tasi Fenumiai led all Falcons scorers with eight points — all from the third quarter — followed closely by Tzadi Hauck with six — all from the first quarter.
After leading 19-6 at the end of the first quarter, Mt. Edgecumbe’s defense displayed its brillance in the second, when TMHS recorded zero points. Cyrene Uddipa, Nina Fenumiai and Kira Frommherz all missed from the field but most of the Falcons possessions ended in turnovers.
“They don’t make mistakes on that (three-two zone) defense,” Uddipa said. “The way that they shift on the defense really altered our offense so that’s what we broke down on.”
The Falcons summoned some of their own defensive grit late in the third quarter. Sophomore Tasi Fenumiai scored six straight points as TMHS outscored the Lady Braves 14-13.
“I would say we won that quarter,” Uddipa said. “We went into halftime and we jacked up the energy a little bit and we started going on a little run.”
The Lady Braves led 42-20 after the third quarter and then went on a 10-2 run to close out the game.
Neither team shot well from the free-throw line: TMHS was 2 of 7; Mt. Edgecumbe was 4 of 10.
TMHS boys 47, MEHS 48
Across the panhandle in Sitka, the Falcons boys shot a perfect 10 of 10 from the free-throw line, but came up a basket short against Mt. Edgecumbe.
TMHS (7-7, 2-0 SEC) made three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, but the Braves held on for a 48-47 victory.
Luke Clark scored 19 points in the loss while Mt. Edgecumbe’s Ben Eve and Emmett Dunaway combined for 25 in the win.
JDHS firls 52, Barrow 67
Approximately an hour before the Falcons teams wrapped up their respective contests against the Sitka squads, the Juneau-Douglas High School girls team (4-11, 2-2 SEC) lost to Barrow 67-52 at the Whaler Invitational in Utqiagvik.
Caitlin Pusich and Cassie Dzinich scored 29 and 15 points, respectively, but no other Crimson Bears scored over four points.
Becca Gerke led the Whalers with 16 points in the win.
Barrow rained down five 3-pointers in the second quarter and JDHS trailed by 18 points at halftime. The 27 second-quarter points for Barrow were more than JDHS scored in the entire half.
JDHS boys 46, Monroe Catholic 58
On the same floor but hours earlier, the JDHS boys (7-7, 0-2 SEC) team lost 58-46 to Monroe Catholic.
The Rams took a commanding 16-7 lead at the end of the first quarter. Trailing 27-18 at halftime, Erik Kelly and Kolby Hoover helped evaporate all but four points of Monroe’s lead by the end of the third quarter.
Kelly scored six points in the fourth quarter to bring his total to 21, but Monroe sunk four 3-pointers to secure the victory.
Thursday
The Barrow Whalers closed the first half on a 12-2 run and never trailed in the second half in a 70-61 win over JDHS in Utqiagvik on the first day of the Whaler Invitational.
Erik Kelly (23 points) and Kolby Hoover (22 points) carried the bulk of the scoring load for the Crimson Bears.
Travis Adams scored 22 points for the Whalers, including nine in the second quarter when Barrow made its run.
In Sitka, the Thunder Mountain boys basketball team defeated Sitka High School, 54-44.
Luke Clark scored 21 points and Owen Mendoza had 14 for the Falcons. TMHS entered the contest on a three-game losing skid despite averaging a respectable 50 points in its losses at the Joe T. Classic Tournament earlier in the month.
The Falcons struggled to put up points in the first quarter — its only field goals were a Mendoza 3-pointer and Josh McAndrews 2-pointer.
Fortunately, the TMHS defense kept them in the game in the second quarter, when Clark made seven points. Sitka still held a 20-17 lead at halftime before Clark and Mendoza combined for 13 points in the third quarter to give TMHS a one-point lead going into the fourth.
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nolin.ainsworth@juneauempire.com.
