The Falcons and Crimson Bears clash this weekend in the first boys basketball crosstown matchups of the year. Those games take place Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m. at Juneau-Douglas High School.
In other local sports action, the JDHS girls host Soldotna (5 p.m. Friday and Saturday at JDHS), the Thunder Mountain High School girls travel to Ketchikan for conference games and the JDHS hockey team heads to Fairbanks for the Mid Alaska Conference playoffs.
The battle for Juneau
It’s homecoming. It’s a crosstown conference clash. It’s the Crimson Bears and the Falcons.
The Juneau-Douglas and Thunder Mountain boys couldn’t be more different this year. The Crimson Bears feature the size and rebounding ability of two of the state’s best big men in Erik Kelly and Bryce Swofford. The Falcons depend on shooting guard Noah Reishus-O’Brien and all-conference point guard Chase Saviers.
The defending state champion Crimson Bears have struggled a bit in mid-season play, going 4-5 in the last three weeks of away games. JDHS (8-5; 0-2 in conference play) will defend their home court coming off 56-61 and 68-78 losses in Ketchikan last weekend.
They’ll have to contend with a confident TMHS (8-5; 0-0 in conference) coming off five straight wins over Colony (60-51 and 50-48), Mount Edgecumbe (64-49 and 67-59) and North Pole (52-41).
If the Falcons can hit their shots, expect them to make the Crimson Bears sweat. If JDHS can out rebound their crosstown counterparts while staying out of foul trouble, they could sweep at home.
Look for coverage of the games in Sunday and Tuesday’s print edition, as well as online at juneauempire.com.
Stars take on JDHS girls
The Juneau-Douglas girls (9-1; 4-0 in conference) play visiting Soldotna (7-6) at JDHS. The Crimson Bears girls are off to smoking hot start to the season as they look to bolster their statewide reputation against their Northern Lights Conference competition.
Soldotna sits at third in their conference following Wasilla and Colony. JDHS has control of the Southeast Conference thus far.
JDHS at MAC playoffs
The JDHS hockey team travels to their conference tournament this weekend for games Friday and Saturday in Fairbanks. A state tournament berth will be on the line for the Crimson Bears: if they win Friday, they’re guaranteed a trip to Anchorage to play for a state title Feb. 9 through 11. If they also win Saturday, they’ll take the conference Mid Alaska Conference No. 1 seed into the state tournament.
