For the week of January 21 - 27, 2004

Cutthroats stay
on a winning roll

Six-game streak a school record

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Their biggest goal is earning a ticket to the State 1A tournament in March, but Community School boys’ varsity basketball players are achieving other things along the way.

With Northside Conference home victories over Shoshone and Richfield last week, the #6-ranked Cutthroats stretched their winning streak to six games—a new school record covering 11 seasons of varsity basketball at Sun Valley.

Top scorer John Hayes (17.3 ppg this season), with 613 points in three seasons, has pulled within 62 points of Graham Snyder’s all-time career record of 675. Jim Fairchild (14.6 ppg) has 523 points in three years and a chance to crack the all-time top three.

Coach Mike Wade’s offense (59.8 ppg) has a shot at breaking last season’s offensive record of 57.5 ppg, and the Cutthroat defense (44.8 ppg) is all over last season’s school-record defensive mark of 49.8 ppg.

Victories are the main goal, however, and the Cutthroats (10-2, 5-1 league) have built a winning attitude over the last two campaigns—winning 22 of their last 28 games. If they keep it up, the 15-11 record of the 1997-98 state tournament team is within striking distance.

The Cutthroats traveled to Camas County (6-3, 4-3) Tuesday and host Dietrich (5-7, 3-3) Saturday, Jan. 24. It’s on to Carey (12-1, 7-0) for a big league showdown next Tuesday.

Saturday night, Hayes (11.1 ppg in his 55-game career with 66 3-pointers) scored a game-high 19 in the 57-43 Cutthroat home win over Richfield (5-6, 3-3). Dylan McIlhenny (11.6 ppg) added 10 points, 6 boards, 3 steals and 4 assists. Fairchild had 8 points and 5 boards.

Wade said, "Our excellent defense for most of the game generated turnovers that led to many fast-break layups. Everybody contributed."

Coach Wade was also very pleased with the team effort in Thursday’s 55-45 home win over Shoshone—only the fourth Community School varsity triumph in 17 games over the years against the Indians.

Senior captain Hayes led the way with 14 points, 11 rebounds, 6 steals and 4 assists.

McIlhenny (16 points) came to play and scored 8 points with 3 steals in the third quarter, helping the Cutthroats break away from a 18-18 half-time tie and establish control.

Fairchild (7 points) had 9 of his 10 rebounds in the second half. Logan Koffler and Andrew Durtschi added 7 points each off the bench after the half.

Wade credited the man-to-man defense of McIlhenny and Luc McCann on Shoshone’s top scorer Tony Pereira (11 points, 7 boards, 5 steals) as a factor in the ultimate outcome. He said, "Our defense overall was good after the first quarter."

On offense, "we were seeing the post guy and not passing," in the first half, Wade said. He added, "We talked at half-time about how we had to play in the lane against Shoshone. We did in the second half, got the fouls (14-for-21 at the line second half). Things went well for us."

CSchool 55-45 over Shoshone: Dylan McIlhenny 16 points, John Hayes 14, Logan Koffler 7, Jim Fairchild 7, Andrew Durtschi 7, Luc McCann 2, A.J. Beesley 2. Rebounds (38)—Hayes 11, Fairchild 10, McIlhenny 4, McCann 4, Durtschi 4. Steals—Hayes 6, McIlhenny 3, Fairchild 2. Assists—Hayes 4. 3-pointers—McIlhenny 2, Hayes 2.

CSchool 57-43 over Richfield: Hayes 19, McIlhenny 10, Fairchild 8, Hunter Smith 6, Durtschi 6, McCann 5, Connor Wade 2, Finn Brown 1. Rebounds (36)—McIlhenny 6, Durtschi 6. Steals—McIlhenny 3, Wade 3. Assists—McCann 5, McIlhenny 4. 3-pointers—Hayes 3, McCann 1, Fairchild 1, McIlhenny 1.

 

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.