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The Thunder Mountain boys faced off against Ketchikan High School in the second 4A game of this year’s Region V tournament on Wednesday at TMHS. The game would remain close for much of the first half, however, Ketchikan managed to slowly inch ahead for a 52-44 finish. Head coach John Blasco said that while the game didn’t end with the result the team was hoping for, he was proud of the overall effort everyone put in from start to finish.
“Ketchikan is such a tough matchup with all of the weapons that they have,” Blasco said. “We came out very hot in that first quarter and then we exerted so much energy that I think it caused our shots to be short, I think we scored 8 points in the next two quarters. And Ketchikan wasn’t flustered by any means, they were down early but they just kept executing and chipped away and we didn’t start seeing the ball fall through the hoop until the fourth quarter. But I’m proud of the guys, MJ Tupou, you could definitely see he wanted to bring us back and he got us going with some great attacks at the basket, so I’m proud of him and the effort that he led us with.”
TMHS senior Tupou led the Falcons in scoring with a total of 14 points with Samuel Lockhart not far behind with 11 points. For Ketchikan, Marcus Stockhausen led his team with a total of 22 points and JJ Parker came in with 12 points.
Next up, Ketchikan will play top-seeded Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé at 8:15 p.m. Thursday, and TMHS will play the loser of that game on Friday at 1:15 p.m.
• Contact reporter Jonson Kuhn at jonson.kuhn@juneauempire.com.
