JDHS girls tip Monroe, Fort Yukon as Capital City Classic ends
- Klas Stolpe
- 5 hours ago
- 10 min read
Crimson Bears nip Lady Rams 50-44, bite Lady Eagles 44-31
By Klas Stolpe
Juneau Independent
The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears girls basketball team finished their final home tournament games in the George Houston Capital City Classic with wins Tuesday over the Monroe Lady Rams 50-44 in the early afternoon and the Fort Yukon Lady Eagles later, 44-31.
“My takeaway from this tournament is that I learned this team has such great potential moving forward,” JDHS coach Tanya Nizich said. “It is so exciting to have such a coachable team. We have seen so much growth in these past couple of games. They are eager and hungry to work hard to get better, but most importantly this is a group of selfless individuals. Each member puts the team first to perform as a whole.”
The Crimson Bears held the Lady Rams scoreless in the final five minutes of their game.
Entering the fourth quarter, JDHS trailed Monroe 39-35 and Lady Rams junior Leila Church scored inside for a 41-35 lead.
Crimson Bears junior Layla Tukuoka hit from past the arc to pull to 41-37, but Lady Rams sophomore Chany Turiel answered from the arc for a 44-37 lead.
JDHS’ Tokuoka then drove through the lane for a score to pull to 44-39 and the Crimson Bears defense came into play. Forcing a turnover, JDHS moved the ball to senior Gwen Nizich, who drove and scored to pull to 44-41. After two missed shots by Monroe the Crimson Bears’ Tokuoka scored on a drive to pull to 44-43 with 3:39 remaining in the game.
Monroe would get just one shot or a turnover under the JDHS pressure on each of their final possessions as JDHS continued to work for a lead.
The Crimson Bears’ Nizich scored on a reverse layup for a 45-44 lead with 1:55 left to play.
“Throughout this tournament, I learned that it is important for me to take advantage of all playmaking and scoring opportunities,” G. Nizich said. “Additionally, I realized the value in competitiveness for our team, not just with our opponents, but challenging each other every day in practice. It pushes us to excel in our individual positions, collectively improves our overall performance, and strengthens our team culture.”
A tumbling scramble on the floor gave Monroe a jump ball possession, but the Lady Rams turned the ball over. Both teams missed shots until JDHS senior Cambry Lockhart hit from the arc for a 48-44 lead with 49.5 seconds left in the game.
Monroe missed on their end and were forced to foul, and JDHS’ C. Lockhart hit two free throws with 10 seconds remaining to ice the game, 50-44.
“Our team showed so much improvement which is really exciting because it is so early on in the season,” C. Lockhart said. “We developed patience on offense and worked hard to contain on defense. It is very encouraging to have the coaches and teammates that I do. Everyone wants to get better and work hard. As for myself, I learned that there is a time and a place for me to step up on offense. Everyone continues to remind me to keep shooting even if I am in a slump. I would say this weekend was rewarding and I am very excited to see our progression.”
Monroe had led 16-9 after the first eight minutes of action with C. Turiel, junior Leyton Cortez and freshman Payton Martino all hitting from the arc and L. Church scoring twice inside. JDHS points came from Nizich from deep, sophomore Athena Warr from inside, and Tokuoka on a drive and two free throws.
At the start of the second quarter, Tokuoka was fouled on a made drive to start the stanza and hit the free throw to pull to 16-12.
After a basket by Monroe freshman Gemma Geyer for an 18-12 lead, JDHS’ C. Lockhart hit a pair of free throws, Tokuoka scored on a drive and C. Lockhart hit from the arc for a 19-18 Crimson Bears lead.
Monroe senior Emersyn Cortez hit from the arc to put the Lady Rams up 21-19, but JDHS answered with a shot past the arc by Tokuoka for a 22-21 lead, and JDHS sophomore Sadie Lockhart stole a ball and fed Warr inside for 24-21.
Monroe’s C. Turiel hit from the arc to tie the game at 24-24 and JDHS sophomore Kyndal Saceda answered from distance for a 27-24 lead. Monroe’s L. Church hit a free throw to close the Lady Rams to 27-25 at the half.
Monroe outscored JDHS 14-8 in the third quarter, but Tokuoka put the Crimson Bears up 30-25 with a pair of free throws to start the stanza. Monroe’s L. Church answered with a score to close to 30-27.
JDHS’ Tokuoka hit another free throw and then assisted on a Nizich fast break score for a 33-27 lead.
Monroe hit back-to-back shots from the arc by C. Turiel and L. Church to tie the game at 33-33, and L. Church followed a shot for a 35-33 Lady Rams advantage and added a pair of free throws for 37-33.
JDHS’ Saceda scored to pull to 37-3,5 but Monroe’s Geyer hit two free throws for a 39-35 lead with the final eight minutes to play.
Tokuoka led JDHS with 21 points, C. Lockhart added 10, Nizich nine and Saceda and Warr five apiece.
JDHS hit 11-15 from the charity stripe, Monroe 8-12.
Church led the Lady Rams with 16 points, C. Turiel added 13, Geyer six, and E. Cortez, L. Cortez and Martino three each.
“Well, our girls obviously learned how to deal with a lot of adversity,” Monroe coach Tim Church said. “Just being stuck in the school for everything with all this snow…we ended up losing one of our senior leaders in the game yesterday (all-state forward Trinity Turiel) so we had to play short with seven, so we are a pretty young team with that. That was huge for us to overcome. The girls still fought, still gave ourselves a good chance to win the game today, clawing back, getting the lead, just losing it, just fell a little short, just didn’t come up with a couple plays, but I couldn’t be more proud of how those girls played. I thought going into the game, ‘Oh man, if we can keep this under 20 we are doing pretty well,’ and we fought hard and didn’t give up so I can’t be more proud.”
Church said his team’s improvement from the first day of practice to their final tournament game this week was notable in “the way they pick each other up. Their body language. Usually a young team like that, if you get some adversity the shoulders slump, the heads are down. After the game you think everyone would be coming in and be upset but they are hugging, they are smiling like, ‘How did we keep it that close?’ The maturity that they have done in three weeks is just unbelievable. It is very uplifting going into the rest of our season.”
With temperatures in Fairbanks during the basketball season at minus 30°F to minus 40°F, Church noted the opposite this week with expected venues and explorations in Juneau being canceled due to up to five feet of snow, an avalanche alert and “having to hurry and pack up and be moved to another school and then, hopefully, we get to fly out of here at 7 a.m. as we have our local tournament starting Thursday. So it’s a quick turnaround, but I wouldn’t do it with any other group of girls.”
JDHS ended their tournament by beating Fort Yukon at their own game - shots from distance.
The Crimson Bears’ Nizich hit a pair of free throws to start the action and Lady Eagles senior Jane Ward answered with a shot past the arc.
Nizich then hit from the arc for a 5-3 lead that JDHS would never lose and S. Lockhart added two free throws for 7-3. Fort Yukon senior inside force Kylee Carroll was whistled for the two fouls and was sidelined, giving JDHS more freedom to drive.
Fort Yukon senior Nellie Ward hit from the arc to pull to 7-6, but JDHS closed out the stanza with Tokuoka hitting from the arc and Warr hitting from inside for a 12-6 lead.
Fort Yukon’s J. Ward hit from the arc to start the second quarter and junior Karli Thomas hit inside to pull to 12-11, but JDHS answered with two free throws by Tokuoka and a Nizich shot in traffic to lead 16-11. Tokuoka then answered a free throw by J. Ward with a swish from the arc for a 19-12 lead at the half.
JDHS’ Nizich and Tokuoka would open the third quarter with a 12-4 run including two shots past the arc by Nizich and one from Tokuoka for a 31-16 lead. Fort Yukon’s scores came from senior Kylee Carroll and J. Ward. Carroll would hit another basket to pull to 31-18, but JDHS’ Saceda hit from the arc and senior Raynona Fraker hit from the arc to close out the stanza. Fort Yukon added two free throws from J. Ward and a basket by sophomore Heidi Cadzow, but trailed 37-22 heading into the final eight minutes.
JDHS sophomores Lydia Goins and Warr commanded the offensive and defensive posts in the final minutes with physical defensive help from freshman Bela Pyare, sophomore Freyja Shelton-Walker and senior Raynona Fraker in the second half and held Fort Yukon’s Carroll to just eight points on the night.
“My main takeaways from this tournament were that I can’t be afraid to get the ball on offense and that I am always boxing out and talking on defense and offense, especially with screens,” JDHS’ Pyare said. “This was an amazing tournament and I am so happy to be learning so much by playing at a high school level for the first time.”
The Lady Eagles’ Carroll and Thomas scored for Fort Yukon from the field in the fourth quarter and senior Jewel Mahler and J. Ward from the line, but JDHS held for the 44-31 win.
Nizich led JDHS with 15 points, Tokuoka added 10, Warr and Saceda six apiece, Fraker three and S. Lockhart and Goins two apiece.
JDHS hit 12-14 at the charity stipe, Fort Yukon 6-13.
J. Ward led Fort Yukon with 13 points, Carroll had eight, Thomas four, N. Ward three, Cadzow two and Mahler one.
“Our team got confidence in this tournament from playing against tougher teams,” Fort Yukon coach and athletic director Joshua Cadzow said. “It was so loud in there, such a great environment, it made me lose my voice trying to holler over them. Our girls didn’t put their heads down once. We are known for fighting to the end, never giving up so I am proud of them. Super proud.”
Going forward, coach Cadzow said, “This is all going to pay off in March, playing these tougher teams. Our next six games are 4A in the Monroe tournament with Lathrop so this is all working for March Madness, it is all going to pay off. Sure, I could have scheduled easy games and just breeze through the season, but I wanted to test them. Test with the best, and Juneau and Monroe are top teams, and I think we did pretty well.”
The Girls’ All-Tournament Team were Leila Church (Monroe Jr.), Layla Tokuoka (JDHS Jr.), Emersyn Cortez (Monroe Sr.), Jane Ward (Fort Yukon Sr.), Cambry Lockhart (JDHS Sr.), Gwen Nizich (JDHS Sr.), Kylee Carroll (Fort Yukon Sr.) and Most Valuable Player Award winner Chany Turiel (Monroe So.).
The Team Championship by tie-breaker scoring went to the Monroe Lady Rams.
Saturday Scores:
Girls - JDHS 60, Fort Yukon 45; Monroe 56, JDHS 50.
Boys - JDHS 60, PSG 50; Monroe 70, Kake 13.
Monday Scores:
Girls - Monroe 48, Fort Yukon 37.
Boys - Monroe 43, Petersburg 36.
Tuesday Scores:
Girls - JDHS 50, Monroe 44; JDHS 44 Fort Yukon 31.
Boys - JDHS 72, Kake 20; JDHS 60, Monroe 44.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@gmail.com.
