The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears boys basketball team defeated the Soldotna Stars 64-49 on Thursday at the Palmer Elks Showdown in Palmer.
Led by a game-high 19 points from senior Ahmir Parker the Crimson Bears avenged a two-point loss, 62-60, to the Stars in the George Houston Capital City Classic on Dec. 28 in Juneau.
“We had an early flight this morning to get here,” JDHS coach Robert Casperson said. “And I think the guys responded well. It has been a long time since we have traveled and played on the same day, and I think they responded well to that. Pretty proud of them for how they did today. You don’t often see the same team in multiple tournaments like this so it is an opportunity for us to try and see where we are at, and what we have improved upon, and I think we checked a lot of boxes.”
Seven Crimson Bears provided the scoring in the first period with Parker, junior Elias Dybdahl and senior Ben Sikes working the muscle inside, and juniors Kurt Kuppert, Joren Gasga, Tyler Frisby and senior Pedrin Saceda-Hurt providing shots closer in. With junior Brandon Casperson and senior Gavin Gerrin joining in on the defensive pressure JDHS opened a 19-11 lead after eight minutes of action.
“We did a good job of attacking the basket,” coach Casperson said. “We looked for each other when the help rotated and we’re getting easy looks in front of the rim for some of our big guys there. So then people stop helping as much and then Ahmir is able to get all the way to the rim. We did a lot of things right. It was nice to play from in front and try to figure out how to do that, and maintain a lead instead of chasing another team.”
The Crimson Bears began a halfcourt trap minutes into the second quarter after giving up five unanswered points to the Stars. Pressure by Gasga and B. Casperson to steer Stars’ ball handlers was key.
JDHS’ Gasga earned a steal and his tight defense forced an offensive foul on Soldotna, and two free throws that Gasga nailed for a 21-16 lead.
Sikes and Parker added defensive steals, and the Crimson Bears went on a 6-2 run for a 28-18 advantage.
JDHS continued their press which resulted in scores by Saceda-Hurt from deep and Dybdahl inside.
Soldotna’s final six points in the stanza came from the free throw line, all by senior Easton Hawkins to close within 34-24 but Dybdahl followed a shot with four seconds left to earn JDHS a 36-24 halftime advantage.
A slow start by the JDHS starters allowed Soldotna to open the second half with an 11-2 run off of four Stars’ steals and a couple Crimson Bears turnovers to cut into the lead 38-35.
“Soldotna played really hard and they came back in that third quarter,” coach Casperson said. “It didn’t feel good, I took a few timeouts so we could try to find some composure. We’re learning. Every opportunity on the floor is a new chance for us to learn and I have a lot of guys that are playing in tight situations for the first time in their careers. They’re learning a lot and that’s what it was, we had to learn how to win tonight.”
A full roster substitution saw JDHS junior Kurt Kuppert drain a deep shot and Frisby do the same. Saceda-Hurt returned to the court to bury a shot for a 47-37 lead after three quarters. Junior Damian Efergan and sophomore Logan Carriker would also find quality minutes off the bench.
“All these guys are figuring out their role,” coach Casperson said. “They know what their talents are and they just have to figure out how it fits into what we are trying to do. Kurt can shoot it really well and he had a couple really good looks, and we got him the ball and he was able to knock those down. Pedrin did some really nice things and got a few good looks for himself. That’s the thing, we have guys that can shoot, more than I have probably had in a while and guys are picking up for each other. I feel like Brandon has done a really good job for us in a lot of different cases, but he has been struggling from the field, not scoring right now, he’s been in a little bit of a slump, but his teammates will pick up for him. And Brandon is out there battling doing other things and he understands what it is we are trying to do, and works really hard trying to make that happen. There are other ways to impact a game besides scoring and we have guys that are willing to fill that role right now too.”
JDHS did not allow Soldotna to get closer than seven points in the final eight minutes. A key defensive play by the Crimson Bears’ Gasga drew the game-ending fifth foul on Soldotna senior scoring threat Izaiah Gilbert with 3:10 left to play.
Leading 54-47 JDHS’ Parker then scored on a euro step, added two free throws and another basket inside for a 62-47 lead.
Soldotna would get a final bucket inside and JDHS’ Dybdahl put in two free throws for the 64-49 win.
Parker led the Crimson Bears with 19 points, Dybdahl added 10, Saceda-Hurt nine, Frisby seven, Sikes, Gasga and Kuppert six each and junior Brandon Casperson one.
JDHS and Soldotna both hit 13-18 at the free throw line.
Hawkins led the Stars with 15 points, Gilbert added eight, junior Jayden Stuyvesant seven, junior Owen Buckbee six, junior Theo Huff four, junior Bryan Berg three, junior Sam Strouse and sophomores Josh Babcock and Damari Adams two each.
Said coach Casperson, “One of the things we talked about right after the game was, we have a saying in our program that I got from somewhere, ‘you don’t accept in victory what you wouldn’t accept in defeat.’ If we had ended up losing that game today there would have been a myriad of things we could have pointed to as the reason. Fortunately we stuck with it and continued to play really hard, and we were able to come out on top, but we know we have to get better and tighten some things up, minimize our mistakes. That’s why we’re playing tournaments at this point of the year. If you are going to want to have a chance to win a state championship or anything like that, typically you have got to win three games in a row.”
JDHS will finish the tournament playing Homer on Friday and Palmer on Saturday.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.
