Friday — February 20, 2004

Wolverines beat Filer
in SCIC district game

One small step toward state,
one giant leap for WR basketball

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If turn about is fair play then the Wood River boys’ basketball team can consider its February 6 loss to Filer officially avenged.

In the first round of the SCIC district playoffs in Hailey Tuesday, Wood River (9-11) bumped off the Wildcats 52-38. It is exactly the same score Filer defeated the Wolverines by just two weeks ago.

"It was a great win," coach Fred Trenkle said.

A big one, too. The last time the Wolverines won in the post-season was four years ago in 2000 and it also shows how much the team has improved. Filer has beaten the Wolverines twice this season by 14 and 17-point margins.

Tuesday belonged to Wood River, however.

Led by junior guard Brady Femling, who scored season-high 15 points and carried off his ball handling duties with the intensity and aplomb of Clint Eastwood, the Wolverines were the aggressor from the outset.

Some of the wrinkles Trenkle added were switching from a man-to-man defense to a zone to force the Wildcats to take their shots from downtown and not many were falling.

In contrast, Femling pulled the trigger on two treys to help the Wolverines to a 10-9 advantage at the end of the first. Filer led twice during the frame. It was the only time in the game they held the lead.

"We held the people down we had to hold down and we didn’t turn it over," Trenkle remarked.

In the second quarter, Filer found out a little something about oppression, scoring just five points, while Wood River posted 15 to lead 25-14 at halftime. The capper was Femling sinking an off-balance three-pointer with no time on the clock.

The Wolverines intensity was exemplified by a great play with 5:01 remaining in the first half. Jeremy Selcho swatted the ball away from a Filer player and Femling made a diving save on the bouncing ball (in which he landed in the stands), and flung the ball to Scott Bohrer, who stopped and popped for a three. The Wolverines also showed some finesse, with Joe Paisley, Kory Ott and Jeremy Selcho going round the horn down low and putting it in.

Hailey also got some good minutes from Jason Hofman, playing in his first game since suffering an ankle injury on Feb. 10.

The Wildcats outscored the Wolverines 11-8 in the third and managed to pull within eight, but ultimately couldn’t make up the ground lost in the first half. Wood River finished up 11-for-16 in free throws, and Filer was 5-for-11.

Next to Femling’s 15, Jeremy Selcho scored 12. Scott Bohrer had 11, Matt Pruett 5, Joe Paisley 4, Jason Hofman 3, and Kory Ott 2. Cody Ehrmantraut was high man for Filer with 10.

While Trenkle savored the win, he also looked ahead to his team’s contest versus Kimberly.

"It’s going to be a dogfight against Kimberly. We beat them by four, they beat us by six," he remarked.

"We are an opportunistic basketball team right now. We’ve won six out of seven and we are playing so much better than we did (earlier in the season)."

In other first-round district games, #1 Declo beat Gooding 54-32, and Kimberly hung a 69-49 loss on Buhl. The winner of Thurday’s Gooding—Buhl matchup will meet Filer at 6 p.m. Monday.

Wood River and Kimberly will face-off in the district semi-finals at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls on Monday, Feb. 23 at 8 p.m. The winner advances to the SCIC championship contest on Tuesday at 8 p.m.

"We have never been to CSI, but we’re just taking it one game at a time right now," Trenkle said.

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.