For the week of January 8 - 14, 2003

Pirates hold off
Hailey boys 53-43

WR hosts Gooding Saturday

---

By JAMES CORDES
Express Correspondent

Traveling to Arco and playing the Butte County Pirates has never been an easy task for the Wood River boys’ basketball program.

When your shooting goes cold and turnovers take over, it is even harder.

That was pretty much the case Saturday night when Wood River resumed its 2002-03 campaign with non-conference games at Arco.

Led by senior post player Refugio Regalado’s 14 points and 7 rebounds, the Wolverines kept the game close throughout, before surrendering to the Pirates 53-43.

Early foul trouble plagued Wood River, as it opened the game in aggressive fashion against a Butte team that was young and had a short bench.

Opening in a full-court defensive press and attempting to establish an inside game on offense, the Wolverines created two quick steals and took an early 6-5 lead.

The game plan began to misfire as the three big men for Wood River, junior Jason Hofman, Regalado, and senior Max Dieffenbach, got in early foul trouble, ending the quarter with a combined five fouls.

"We felt we could run on them and gain a conditioning advantage because their team was so small," Wood River head coach Jeff Larson said. "But we didn’t help ourselves with early fouls. It allowed them to rest and score at the free throw line."

Opening the second quarter in an aggressive 2-3 zone of its own, Butte County stalled the Wolverine offense through much of the period.

"That was a good move by them." Larson said.

Wood River guards Jorge Giribet-Canto and Joe Paisley began penetrating and creating open opportunities for jumpers close to the basket.

But with the Wolverine shooting going Arctic cold, the Pirates went on a 10-2 run. After seeing the ball game tied 12-12 early in the second, the Wolverines went into half trailing 22-14.

"We really struggle with zones, especially when our outside shots aren’t falling." Larson said.

Wood River opened the third period still struggling from the field and the Pirates opened up a 14-point lead.

Momentum then changed, after a Hofman basket from an in-bounds lob pass. Wood River’s stingy man-to-man defense and aggressive penetrating on offense picked up and started creating scoring opportunities.

Regalado led the way, with baseline penetrations on back-to-back possessions, setting up baskets for himself and senior Paul Tinker.

On the next possession, after his own steal on the defensive end, Regalado found himself open for a three and drained it, closing the Hailey deficit to 32-23.

Junior Brian Ward’s fast-break left-handed lay-up again brought Wood River to within nine points. The visitors went into the fourth trailing on the scoreboard 36-27.

Opening the fourth, a Wood River technical foul gave Butte the momentum back and they took advantage. Crashing the boards hard and running the fast break, the Pirates led 45-31 mid-way through the fourth. Again, it was their 2-3 zone that held Wood River at bay again.

"We weren’t going strong to the basket, we weren’t attacking the rim." Larson said. "We needed either to get a field goal or a foul."

After a Dieffenbach score from an in-bounds play, Wood River mixed up its offense and began to attack the zone more. The Wolverines sent cutters through the key, trying to open up opportunities inside.

Aggressive moves to the basket created a score for junior guard Luis Ruiz and two free throw hits for junior Riley Neff. Another big three-pointer by Regalado, this time with a foul, brought the score to 45-36, with 2:45 left in the game.

However, with Butte still attacking the basket and the boards, a nine-point deficit was tough for Wood River to make up. Exchanging baskets in the final minutes, Wood River never got any closer and fell 53-43.

"The teams were pretty even, we just missed too many open threes. As it went down to the wire, we had too many guys playing scared." Larson said.

Regalado led the Wolverines with 14 points and 7 rebounds, Hofman pulled down 6 rebounds and added 6 points along with 2 blocks. Tinker dropped in 8 points.

Neff had 4 points while Ruiz, Ward, Diffenbach, Tory Haavik and Paisley had 2 points each, Giribet-Canto 1.

Although Butte shot 13 more free throws than Wood River, they only scored 6 more points from the line, as the Wolverines went 5-8 and the Pirates 11-21.

Butte was led in scoring by junior Cayd Brunson (23).

Wood River (2-5, 1-1 league), which has seven home games in January, hosted Wendell Tuesday for a warm-up before returning to league play against the Gooding Senators Saturday, Jan. 11, also on the Hailey hardwoods.

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.