This article will be updated with further results.
Before the season started, Thunder Mountain High School girls basketball coach Andy Lee said his team is dangerous enough to beat anyone on their schedule. TMHS proved that to be the case over in the Sitka Coastal Holiday Classic, reeling off wins in its first three games of the season and claiming the top spot in the tournament.
Thunder Mountain won by double digits in each of its contests en route to winning the tournament, besting Sitka High School 51-40, Kodiak High School 69-39 and Nikiski 59-16.
In the first round, Thunder Mountain overcame a sluggish first quarter —the buzzer sounded to end the first frame with TMHS trailing 10-2 —to notch the win. Sophomore Kerra Baxter led TMHS in scoring with 14 points, and junior Jaya Carandang added 9 points of her own, shooting 2-for-3 from behind the 3-point line.
The game’s leading scorer was Sitka’s Naia Nelson, a junior, who poured in 23 points.
In the second round, sophomore Cailynn Baster led TMHS with 26 points. Carandang and Kerra Baxter added 12 points and 10 points, respectively. Ashlyn Gates, a junior, led the way on defense, chipped in 9 points and came up with six rebounds.
In the third round, TMHS jumped out to an early lead in large part to an 18-0 run that was jump-started by three 3-pointers from junior Mikah Carandang. Cailynn Baxter led the scoring for TMHS with 13 points and Ashlyn Gates had another solid outing with 12 points and eight rebounds.
• Contact Ben Hohenstatt at (907)308-4895 or bhohenstatt@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BenHohenstatt.
