Friday — February 6, 2004

Wood River girls
pound Buhl 66-27

Earn berth in SCIC title game

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They’ve got a lot more they want to accomplish, but Wood River High School girls’ varsity basketball players had to get sound footing on their first post-season step—and they did it Tuesday night against their toughest rival Buhl.

Wood River (14-6), getting 20 points from all-time scoring leader Natalie Green and a career-high 16 points from Tiffany Wheeler, pounded Buhl 66-27 in the opening game of the Sawtooth Central Idaho Conference tournament in Hailey.

Tiffany Wheeler follows through on two of her 16 points. Express photo by David N. Seelig

For the game Wood River out-rebounded Buhl 32-20, came up with 14 steals and moved the ball well on offense with 16 assists. Emily Smith added 12 points and 5 rebounds, Jessica King 9 points and 7 boards.

There wasn’t a tear shed in Hailey because of the 39-point margin, since throughout Wood River’s 29 years of playing girls’ basketball Buhl has always pounded the Wolverines. Before this season, Wood River was 11-77 against Buhl. This season they’re 3-0.

Coach Brent Carnduff’s top-seeded Wolverines, on a mission to earn the school’s first-ever state tournament berth, wanted to win convincingly against #6-seeded Buhl (7-11)—a program that has built a long record of representing the SCIC at February’s state tourney.

Wheeler said, "We know what we want to accomplish, and we knew it was our job tonight to set a big example that all the other teams can see. We were focused all day, and the whole team was united in that goal."

The season-best offensive total of 66 points could have been higher if Wood River hadn’t missed about six easy shots in the first quarter. Green (16.2 ppg) scored 7 points in the first period, many coming on the press break, and Hailey built a 16-10 lead.

Six different Wolverines tallied points in the 21-9 second quarter as the home team raced out to a 37-19 half-time lead, their biggest of the season. Wheeler, Green and King each scored 5 points in the third, and floor leader Smith had 5 in the fourth.

With the win, Wood River earned a berth in the league championship game for the first time in 24 years. The Wolverines will play for an automatic State 3A tourney berth Monday, Feb. 9 at 7 p.m. on the Hailey hardwoods against the winner of Thursday’s semi-final between Declo and Gooding.

In Tuesday’s other first-round games, #2-seeded Declo (12-7) outscored #5 Kimberly 49-22 and #3 Gooding (14-7) edged #4-seeded Filer 48-41. The top two teams in the SCIC advance to the State 3A tourney Feb. 19-21 at Bishop Kelly High School, Boise. Stats from Tuesday:

WR 66-27 over Buhl—Natalie Green 20, Tiffany Wheeler 16, Emily Smith 12, Jessica King 9, Syringa Stark 6, Liz Rippon 2, Nikki Calzacorta 1.  Rebounds—(32)—King 7, Stark 7, Smith 5, Green 5, Calzacorta 3, Wheeler 2, Dawn Bird 2.  Assists—Green 4, Wheeler 3, Rippon 3, Smith 2, King 2, Stark 2.  Blocked shots—Green 1.  3-pointers—Wheeler 2, Smith 1.  FT—11-19.  Buhl FT—5-13.

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