Carey, Richfield go into Northside overtime
Rubber game settles league tournament, both to state
Energizing the small farm town, the marvelous two-season
run of the Richfield Tigers boys’ varsity basketball team (45-7) has
been based on three tenets of success—tenacity, talent and teamwork.
But 2000 State A-4 runner-up Richfield doesn’t have a
monopoly on those fundamentals of winning, as Carey School’s
upset-minded Panthers showed Monday in the Northside A-4 tournament
championship game.
Richfield and Carey are both going to the State A-4
tournament Feb. 28-March 3 in Caldwell. Bragging rights in the conference
and a better first-round match-up at state were at stake in their recent
clashes—games that have drawn 1,000 fans to Shoshone’s gym this week
and last week.
Playing scrappy defense and utilizing its advantage in
quickness, #3-seeded Carey (16-7) rallied past top-seeded Richfield (21-2)
by a 48-42 score Monday to force a deciding tournament game. The rubber
game in the five-game season series was Tuesday night.
Carey senior Alex Peterson (16.1 ppg) scored 10 of his
game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter helping the Panthers erase a
35-30 Richfield lead. And the Panther defense held top Tiger scorer
Quinton Kent (16.0 ppg) without a field goal in the last eight minutes.
Kent finished with a team-high 15.
"Defense was the key," said Carey coach Lee
Cook, whose squad limited Richfield to 31% field goal shooting while
hitting 43% of its baskets.
"We set a goal to hold Quinton Kent to 15 points or
less, and we achieved that. We wanted to contain Kent and Rouven Wagner,
and I think we did that as well. On offense, we wanted to keep working the
ball inside instead of taking the 3-point shot, and we did that."
The loss of 6-1 senior Blaise Exon to a knee injury in
last Monday’s 55-47 Richfield victory over Carey altered the Tiger team
chemistry and reduced the options of coach Garr Ward. Exon contributes
7-10 points per game, rebounds well and plays many key roles.
Still, Richfield’s fancy-passing and do-everything guard
tandem of Kent and Wagner scored 18 of the 26 Tiger points in the middle
quarters putting Richfield ahead 35-30 early in the fourth.
That’s when Carey’s ball-hawking defense ignited a 9-0
run that put the Panthers—the only team to beat Richfield this winter—ahead
39-35 and on the way to their second win of the season of the Tigers.
Peterson (8 rebounds, 3 steals) passed under the basket to
senior point guard Tony Howard (14.7 ppg), who scored a big bucket. Howard
finished with 15 points and 2 steals.
Howard (6 assists) returned the favor, finding Peterson
for a 14-foot turnaround jumper. Then John Saili (7 rebounds, 2 blocks)
blocked a shot, made a steal at mid-court and fed Jonathan Rivera on
transition. Rivera passed to the trailer Peterson for a 36-35 Carey lead.
Another opportunistic defensive play was made by speedy
senior Rivera (6 points, 5 steals, 4 rebounds, 4 assists), who stole a
Tiger lob pass and ran the floor. He fed Peterson, who made the 3-point
play for a 39-35 Carey lead.
Down the homestretch it was free throws (8-for-12 by
Carey) making the 6-point difference. Carey has shot 60% from the line
this winter and, in a reversal from previous Panther squads, has outscored
opponents from the line 224-209.
Wagner and Mitch Lucero (three 3-pointers) each scored 11
for Richfield and Ben Fuchs had 4. Saili added 4, Trevor Hunt 2, Shawn
Hennefer 2 and Cook 1 for Carey.
The winner of Tuesday’s Carey-Richfield contest will
meet Southside Conference champion Raft River (14-8) and its junior
sharpshooter Jacob Nelson (23.0 ppg, 9.0 rebounds) for the Fourth District
A-4 title Thursday, Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. at Gooding High School.
Tuesday’s Carey-Richfield loser will play Hagerman
(11-12) Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Gooding High for state seeding. Hagerman
upset last year’s Fourth District king Oakley 47-46 Thursday at Filer to
earn the Southside’s second seed.
The preliminary 5 p.m. game Thursday matches Shoshone
(15-9) and Oakley (15-7), with the winner going to state and the loser
going home. Oakley lost 56-51 to Raft River Wednesday then fell by one
point to Hagerman Thursday.
Carey earned its seventh trip in nine years to the 16-team
state tourney by beating #2-seeded Shoshone 51-44 last Tuesday at the
Shoshone gym.
Once again playing strong defense and taking care of the
ball, the Panthers jumped out to a 27-16 half-time lead, which is
essential to succeed against coach Larry Messick’s deliberate Indian
offense.
But Shoshone stormed back on the second-half shooting of
Jackson Uhrig (17 points including five 3-pointers) and tied the game
40-40 before Carey (12-of-22 free throws) put it away with charities.
Carey coach Cook said, "We played hard, hung in there
and prevailed. Jackson Uhrig just shot exceptionally well, hitting
3-pointers from eight-to-ten feet behind the arc. But we played really
good defense on Shoshone’s other players."
Howard (7 points in the first, 7 in the fourth) tallied a
game-high 19 including 9-for-15 at the line. Howard added 4 assists and 6
rebounds. The Panthers committed only 8 turnovers.
Coach Cook said, "Tony has really helped us this
year."
Peterson had 11 points, 4 boards and 3 blocks. Rivera
(10.5 ppg) added 4 points, 5 assists and 4 boards. Senior Lee Jay Cook
(7.0 ppg) had 7 points, 4 rebounds and 2 steals. Saili (5.9 ppg) had 7
points, 6 boards and 2 blocked shots.
Sophomore Shawn Hennefer has come up from Carey’s JV
championship team and given the Panthers a shot in the arm. Hennefer
scored a 3-pointer against Shoshone, and added 2 points and 3 rebounds in
Monday’s win over Richfield.
Talking about the victory that earned the Panthers a trip
to the state tournament, coach Cook said, "The kids were really
tickled. Shoshone has been our Achilles heel, so it was a really big win
for us."
