The Thunder Mountain High School Falcons boys basketball team followed senior Thomas Baxter to recover from a 54-45 loss on Friday at Ketchikan by swarming the Kings 61-45 on Saturday in the Clarke Cochrane gymnasium.
“A good bounce-back win,” TMHS coach John Blasco said of Saturday’s game. “Thomas (Baxter) was definitely locked in and in a zone that we rode and it was all within the flow of the game.”
Baxter accounted for six shots past the arc en route to a game-high 30 points including 13 in the fourth quarter to quiet a late Kayhi run.
In the first quarter Baxter and senior Samuel Lockhart hit from deep, and Baxter and seniors James Polasky and TJ Guevarra hit inside to open an 18-11 lead.
“We had guys that stepped up in a lot of ways,” Blasco said. “TJ contributing from the field, Sam (Lockhart) and James (Polasky) had lower numbers but James was massive on the boards for us and Sam was leading our smothering defense that held RC (Kings senior RC Lorenzo) to seven points.”
The Falcons also stifled Kayhi junior Marcus Stockhausen, who had gone off for 23 points on Friday.
“He is a tough kid to guard because he can shoot so well,” Blasco said of Stockhausen. “He had six 3-point shots the first night and tonight he was trying to go inside and post up but thankfully we were able to collapse down and not give him a ton of easy looks in the paint. It was a tough defensive game for us. The guys played at a high intensity level for the whole game which was reflected in the outcome.”
The stingy Falcons defense would hold the Kings to just seven points (five from junior Jonathan Scoblic and two from senior Andrew Kleinschmidt) in the second stanza while Baxter scored six, Lockhart three and Guevarra two for a 29-18 halftime lead.
Falcons’ sophomore Joren Gasga, senior Kasen Ludeman, Baxter and Guevarra all kept pace with Kayhi scoring in the third quarter for a 44-34 lead heading into the final stanza.
Baxter was unstoppable in the final eight minutes outscoring Kayhi by himself 13-9. The Kings found two shots past the arc from junior M. Stockhausen and another from Lorenzo.
After Baxter’s 30 points, Guevarra and Lockhart added eight apiece, Polasky seven, Ludeman five and Gasga three.
TMHS hit 3-4 at the charity stripe, KHS 8-12.
Scoblic led the Kings with 13 points, Kleinschmidt 11, M. Stockhausen nine, Lorenzo six and senior Jared Rhoads four.
Lockhart led the Falcons on Friday with 17 points including three from past the arc. His marksmanship also earned recognition as he became a member of the 1,000-point club at TMHS and with Saturday’s game included Lockhart has scored 1,014 points for the Falcons.
Lockhart was given Friday’s game ball by Kayhi coach Eric Stockhausen before Saturday’s game.
On Friday sophomore Joren Gasga added 10 points for the Falcons, Polasky nine, Baxter five, seniors TJ Guevarra and Kasen Ludeman two apiece.
Kayhi hit 4-7 at the charity stripe, TMHS went 2-6.
M. Stockhausen led the Kings with 23 points, Rhoads 13, Lorenzo 12, Kleinschmidt and Scoblic three apiece.
The Falcons took a 12-5 lead after eight minutes but Ketchikan outscored TMHS 20-12 in the second quarter for a 25-24 lead at the break.
M. Stockhausen hit three shots past the arc in the third quarter to push the Kings to a 43-32 lead and he would add another three-pointer in the fourth quarter, his sixth of the game, as the Kings played the Falcons even in the last stanza.
TMHS improves to 13-6 overall (1-1 Southeast Conference) and next hosts Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé on Feb. 13. Ketchikan is 10-9 overall (2-2 SEC). JDHS, 11-8 overall (1-1 SEC), plays at Kayhi next weekend.
“Definitely losing that first one hurt,” Blasco said. “But when you are on the road in conference play…I kind of reflect back growing up under coach George Houston and his mindset was always ‘win at home, split on the road’ and if you can get both on the road that is a bonus but recognizing the challenge that it is playing on the road in hostile environments. We lost a tough one Friday but the guys are feeling very good about bouncing back and getting a win today and being able to come home one and one in conference.”
Thunder Mountain High School senior Samuel Lockhart was honored at Ketchikan after scoring his 1,000th point against the Kings. (Courtesy photo)
