Coming off a hotly contested 19-point loss to the Juneau-Douglas High School boys basketball team on Friday, the Thunder Mountain High School Falcons were hungry in their rematch.
TMHS came out Saturday determined to avenge its home court loss the night before, and quickly established a 9-0 lead. However, down the stretch were unable to overcome the Crimson Bears’ size, depth or full-court press, falling to their crosstown rivals for the second night in a row.
The Crimson Bears (6-2) beat the Falcons (3-2) 64-51 by dominating in the paint and wearing their opponents down with a full-court press.
“We had to get a little attitude adjustment there but I feel we responded pretty well,” JDHS coach Robert Casperson said, speaking of their early deficit. “… It’s hard to go down 10 to zero or whatever it was and to chip away at it and try and come back, so I told them there are no 10-point shots. We had to get stops and make some buckets. … Thunder Mountain did a great job coming out attacking the basket right away.”
JDHS guard Guy Bean led all scorers with 14, followed by his sophomore teammates, Kolby Hoover and Erik Kelly, who each had 13. Forward Bryce Swafford contributed eight, and seniors Kaleb Tompkins and Molo Maka each had six.
In the fourth quarter JDHS’ depth and size proved insurmountable, with several players coming off the bench to contribute key energy and points to a team that had been in the full-court press most of the game.
“We are building depth, for sure. Some of those younger guys coming off the bench are providing great minutes,” Casperson said. “Molo Maka is a senior but he’s coming off the bench and giving us great life, great defensive rebounds and making some buckets.”
Scoring for the Falcons was led by senior Shane Mielke with 13. Juniors Chase Saviors and Riley Olson each added 10.
TMHS head coach John Blasco saw a lot of positives in his squad Saturday. “I’m happy with the way our guys played tonight, they battled the whole game and it is still a loss but I think we got better tonight.”
TMHS came out of the gate with an inspired energy, and looked to be in control of the game, putting up baskets early and getting steals and turnovers off of a slow-to-start Crimson Bears team.
“Obviously we didn’t like losing last night by 19 on our home court, so we came out with some intensity and started knocking down shots early so momentum was up and we felt good,” Blasco said.
Down nine with four minutes left in the first, JDHS called a timeout and went right into their full-court press, which slowed down TMHS’s attack and stole some of the momentum back for the Crimson Bears. TMHS responded well to the press, but as the second quarter ended the Flacons had lost their lead, tied 25-25.
The third quarter belonged to JDHS, who forced turnovers and jumped to a 10-point lead going into the fourth.
“We had good moments but we also had a stretch of about four turnovers when they got their lead back,” Blasco said.
The Bears continued to press in the fourth, and off the success of their bench, went up by as many as 16. TMHS continued to battle, with senior Shane Mielke getting to the line multiple times and showing a lot of toughness down low against a taller Crimson Bears team. At no point did the TMHS Falcons seem out of the game, but when the buzzer sounded they were 13 points short.
Thunder Mountain looks to bounce back at home against Service at 8 p.m. Jan. 15. Juneau-Douglas’ next tilt is a home game against Service at 7 p.m. Jan. 16.
