For the week of February 5 - 11, 2003

Wood River boys overcome Buhl 47-43

Tough down the stretch

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Coming out strong in the third quarter and handling the pressure of a close game in the fourth, the Wood River High School boys’ varsity basketball team defeated arch-rival Buhl 47-43 Thursday on the Hailey floor.

Leading scorer Refugio Regalado (14.8 ppg) scored 14 points with 7 rebounds, sophomore Brady Femling added 11 points and 7 boards and senior guard Tory Haavik tallied 7 of his 10 in the second half for Hailey.

Coach Jeff Larson’s Wolverines (3-14, 2-6 league) snapped a 10-game losing skid and swept the season series with Sawtooth Central Idaho Conference foe Buhl (2-13, 1-7).

With the victory, Wood River could avoid playing last year’s state tournament runner-up Declo (13-2, 7-1) on the road in the first round of the SCIC tourney starting Feb. 17.

But just putting together four quarters of solid basketball was Wood River’s goal last Thursday. Still thinking of its 50-49 upset win at Filer Jan. 23, Buhl jumped to leads of 16-12 at the break and 22-21 at half.

Wood River exploded on an 13-2 run for a 32-24 lead to start the third period. Regalado drilled a 16-footer, then Femling (3 assists) went coast-to-coast for a 25-22 lead and Haavik hit a 3-pointer, from Riley Neff.

Taking two long strides from the circle, Jason Hofman (4 points) went hard to the hoop for a driving basket. Wood River’s strong man-to-man defense continued to frustrate Buhl—and Haavik stole the ball and scored on the fast break for a 32-24 cushion.

Buhl battled back into a 36-36 tie on the scoring of senior sharpshooter Tim Bourner (8 of his game-high 19 points in the fourth). Then senior Paul Tinker made two huge baskets.

Tinker took a Femling pass and got a good roll on a foul line jumper. Then Haavik rebounded a long Bourner 3-point miss and took it down-court, where he hit Tinker with a pass in the paint. Tinker drove for two points and a 41-36 lead at 1:58.

Femling went 4-for-4 from the foul line and Haavik sank two clutch charities down the stretch as Wood River outscored an opposing team for only the second time from the stripe.

On Friday Wood River continued to have a tough time covering Gooding’s 6-5 senior lefty Jake Garcin, who scored 25 points in his team’s 57-47 SCIC home victory over the Hailey boys. Garcin had 23 in Gooding’s 47-40 win in Hailey Jan. 11.

Regalado tallied 18 points, his 13th double-digit effort, while Jorge Giribet-Canto added 8, Femling 6, Neff 4, Hofman 4 and Haavik 3. Gooding snapped a three-game skid and improved to 5-11, 3-5 league.

Wood River visits Filer (11-3, 5-2) on Friday, Feb. 7 and goes to Valley (13-4) for a make-up game Monday, Feb. 10. The "Senior Night" finale is Feb. 13 against Kimberly (8-6, 5-2).

 

 

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