Friday, January 7, 2005

Wolverines stun Bees 50-46 in upset special

51-point turnaround for Wood River boys


By JEFF CORDES
Express Staff Writer

Shown here against Buhl on Dec.10, Dylan Fullmer had a tremendous game against Bonneville on Wednesday and was instrumental in the Wolverines' 50-46 victory. It was Wood River's first win of the season.

The David and Goliath story so well suited to American high school basketball came center stage to the Hailey gym Wednesday—with Wood River High celebrating as a bunch of delighted Davids at the end.

Wood River (1-8), playing ferocious defense and making 15-of-21 free throws, held the Bonneville Bees (4-4) to 10 first-half points and held off a late Idaho Falls charge for a 50-46 non-conference boys' win that was completely unexpected.

Bonneville, having played in the State 4A tournament championship game for the last two years, winning in 2003, had beaten Wood River by 47 points back on Dec. 11. And once again the Bees are ranked among Idaho's best 4A schools.

Coach Fred Trenkle's Wood River Wolverines, competing at the tougher 4A level for the first year, hadn't won a game in eight tries and had been outscored by an average 60-42. But Wood River showed tremendous desire in winning its first-ever game against the Bees.

Trenkle said, "It was a great team effort against a heckuva team. Our defense was super. We out-scrapped and out-thought a team that is good enough to win a state championship. Tonight, we were short, slow and smart and we made a 51-point turnaround.

"I told them—the strong beats the weak, but the smart beats the strong. When you're not big, not quick and not fast, you have to get better position, and we did that tonight. We may have gotten Bonneville on an off night, but we executed."

The Bees led once, at 2-0. Wood River's lead reached 19 points in the third quarter. Unforced Hailey turnovers got the Bees back into the game and the visitors cut the lead to 40-39 with 2:22 remaining. But Wood River made free throws down the stretch for its first win.

Leading Wood River on defense from the get-go was senior co-captain Dylan Fullmer, who had the game of his life on both ends of the court. Fullmer's job was to guard Bees senior guard Jordan Keck, who scored 19 points including five 3-pointers in Bonneville's 83-36 runaway victory in December.

This time, Keck didn't score a single point in the first three quarters. All nine of his points came in the fourth period. As a team, Bonneville finished with only five 3-pointers, compared to 16 last time the teams played.

Trenkle said, "Dylan can get out and get after you.

"We knew Bonneville prided itself on shooting the 3s—they average making 15 a game—but they aren't great at the free throw line. We said, let's feed on poor free throw shooting and keep them away from 3s."

Bonneville was 1-for-6 at the charity stripe in the first half, and 7-for-17 for the game.

The second quarter in which Wood River outscored the Bees 16-6 set the tone for the game. Diving for loose balls and ballhawking, Wood River made its own breaks and threw Bonneville out of rhythm with intense straight-up man-to-man.

It was Wood River's best quarter of the season.

The crowning touch came on the last play of the half, when Fullmer caused a steal and kicked the ball to his teammate Brady Femling. Femling delivered a lead pass to Fullmer on transition, and Fullmer took it hard to the hole for an old-fashioned three-point play.

Fullmer (3.0 ppg) finished with a season-best 10 points including 5-for-5 at the line.

After Wood River shocked high-scoring Bonneville (63.2 ppg) by taking the 25-10 half-time lead, senior guard Femling (13.0 ppg) scored 11 of his game-high 16 points in the second half to hold off the Bees.

The outcome was anything but certain in the fourth. Playing with a disintegrating lead, Trenkle kept urging his players to be patient on offense, which was hard to do with open looks and Bonneville bearing down.

Jordan Keck came alive and made a putback cutting the Wood River lead to 40-39. At that point Femling caught an inbounds pass from Fullmer and drilled a 3-pointer, then Femling stripped the ball on defense. On the sideline inbounds Fullmer delivered a lead pass to Morgan Uhrig, who made a layup for a 45-39 lead.

Free throws determined the game in the final minute as Femling, Fullmer and Uhrig made 5-of-6. For the season Wood River (65%) is out-shooting its foes 148-88 at the line and outscoring them 96-50.

Uhrig (7.2 ppg) tallied 12 points including 4-for-5 at the line. Casey Lane was a factor on the boards and scored 6 points at timely spots. Craig Werley (4 points) had great minutes and Kyle Lubeck (2 points) played hard as always.

Wood River (0-1 league) resumes its Great Basin Conference West season Friday, Jan. 7 at Jerome (5-6, 1-0 league). Jerome had its three-game win streak snapped 50-46 at Blackfoot Wednesday. Also Friday, Burley (4-4, 0-1 league) hosts Minico (4-5, 1-0 league).




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