The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé boys basketball won two out of three games at South Anchorage High School, finishing in third place for the O’Brady’s Invitational tournament.
On Friday JDHS won against Bartlett High School with a final score of 65-52 but then lost to West Valley High School of Fairbanks in the following game with a final score of 64-44. On Saturday the Crimson Bears boys faced off against South Anchorage for a final score of 67-40. Head coach Robert Casperson said the weekend’s wins were much more to the team’s satisfaction than last year’s results for the tournament.
“We’re pretty excited about it, even the guys on the team noticed we just went two and one on an Anchorage trip and beat two Anchorage schools. They understand, they get it, so that’s good for us.”
In Friday’s game against Bartlett, Sean Oliver led the team in scoring with 19 points, Orion Dybdahl had 17, Joseph Aline had 10, Alwen Carrillo had 9, Kai Hargrave had 8 and Chirs Harris had 1. In the following game against West Valley, Oliver once again led the way with 16 points, Orion Dybdahl had 11, Alwen Carrillo had 6, Chris Harris had 5, Joseph Aline had 4 and Kai Hargrave had 2.
Dybdahl led in scoring against South Anchorage with 19 points, with Harris and Oliver behind him with 11. Jhowel Estigoy had 8 points, Hargrave had 7, Aline had 2 and Nelson Bodhi had 2. Additionally, Oliver and Dybdahl made the all-tournament team. Casperson said Carrillo sprained his ankle in the first quarter of Saturday’s game but despite the team being down their point guard, he was proud of how everyone stepped up.
“We really had to buckle down and make sure we were concentrating,” Casperson said. “It became point guard by committee after that and Sean Oliver stepped in and shouldered most of those duties, but the guys had to keep their focus without their captain, the point guard who handles the ball most of the time, and I was proud of the way they responded to it. The ball moved well, guys got open, we were looking for each other and ended up doing a good job at attacking the basket, whether it was with passes or post up or dribble drives, we made it a priority to get to the rim and we did a really good job with that.”
• Contact reporter Jonson Kuhn at jonson.kuhn@juneauempire.com.
