Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Carey girls set sights high on the basketball court

Panthers aim for state in tough Northside league


Two and possibly three Northside Conference girls' basketball teams will pack their bags for the State 1A tournament at Nampa in mid-February knowing they have been well prepared for the upcoming test.

That's because four or five of the Northside squads are licking their chops thinking they are state-caliber teams this winter. And knocking heads all season in the Northside will be the equivalent of playing a state tournament game nearly every night.

"It should be pretty interesting," said third-year Carey School head coach Hollis Pincock (21-21). "Who will win will depend on who comes to play on any given night."

Carey, coming off a surprising third-place finish in October's State 1A volleyball tournament, is considered a contender along with Richfield, Dietrich and Camas County.

They will all try to catch defending state champion Shoshone (25-1). Coach Tim Chapman's Indians, who won their state tournament games by 31, 29, 17 and 18 points last February, will be trying to complete a rare back-to-back double—winning volleyball and basketball the same year.

Pincock said, "Carey's volleyball team had some success this fall at state and I think that might carry over into basketball season. They got some confidence, and they think it would be cool to go back to state."

First, Carey has to win in the Northside, which happened only five times in 10 league games for the #4-seeded Panthers (13-9) last winter.

Carey (averaging 48.1 ppg offense and 44.7 ppg defense) put together a three-game winning streak and a four-game win streak, but it was pretty tough to get a long win streak going because of their league opponents. Carey was 0-3 against Shoshone, 0-2 against Richfield and 1-2 against Dietrich last winter.

Senior leadership should play a big role for Carey, just as it will bolster all the other contenders.

Five of Carey's six seniors are returning starters.

They are second-team All-Northside players Whitney Peck and Jessica Royal, honorable mention picks Lacey Peterson and Brenna Silva, and Amy Olsen. Amanda Hill, a strong defensive player, is another returning Panther senior. But height isn't a big Carey asset. Everybody ranges between 5-5 and 5-8.

Peck was Carey's leading scorer with 239 points (10.9 ppg) and Silva was the second-leading scorer with 208 points (9.5 ppg) including an amazing school-record 31-point effort in Carey's season-ending 59-58 loss to Dietrich in the Northside 1A Sub-District tourney at Shoshone.

Royal (7.1 ppg) and Peterson (6.8) were reliable sharpshooters with 16 and 14 3-pointers respectively. Olsen (6.5 ppg) makes many of her contributions from the baseline.

Pincock said Royal will direct the offense as point guard. He said, "Jessica can see the floor very well and is like a second coach on the court. She is very talented. Whitney is five-foot-nothing but she's our post and she out-rebounds girls twice her size.

"Brenna had that good game at district and she is very active in the post. Lacey has a great outside shot and Amy has a nice outside shot as well. Both are wings."

Tenacity, senior leadership and familiarity with each other will be positive points for Carey during the 19-game regular-season schedule that opens today, Wednesday, Nov. 16 with non-conference games against Clark County at the Carey gym. Carey beat the Bobcats by 20 points last November in Dubois.

But Pincock will also use three promising juniors to help run the floor and apply defensive pressure.

They are point guard/wing Cassie Weaver, 5-9 post Allison Shaffer and wing Emily Olsen. "They are three good juniors," Pincock said.

Pincock said Carey will focus on strong man-to-man team defense and getting the ball up and down the floor in quick fashion. The Panthers won't be shy about going to the defensive press, and they will keep up the pressure into the fourth quarter "as long as we stay healthy," he said.

With one game under its belt, Carey will face its first test Thursday, Nov. 17 at Oakley. The Hornets, sixth at state last year with a 17-7 record, and Hagerman are considered the early Southside Conference front-runners. Oakley returns six players and "will be tough," Pincock said.

But the toughest hurdle will be Shoshone.

"We'd like to beat Shoshone this year but they didn't lose much," said Pincock. Although Shoshone returns six seniors including All-Everything Katie Strunk, Hailey Harris and Kallie Axelson, the key player might be 5-8 junior guard Kori Bingham, said Pincock. "She is a very active wing, all over the place," he added.

Last year's "Coach of the Year" Steve Kent's Richfield Tigers (19-7, second place Northside, 1-2 state) will be on a mission after many of its players sat out the 2005 volleyball season because of a acrimonious dispute with their coach. Junior Cassie Wood will lead the Tigers, but Richfield will miss its only senior from last year, Brooke Norman. "Norman was one of the keys to Richfield's success last year," said Pincock.

Richfield (1-0) opened the 2005-06 season with a 48-29 home victory over Mackay last Saturday.

Last winter, #2-seeded Dietrich (14-9) eliminated Carey by a single point at the Northside tournament and then missed out on a trip to state with a 46-38 loss to #3 Richfield. Everything at Dietrich revolves around 5-9 senior Caitlin Dill, but Pincock said she can be contained.

Dietrich (2-0) debuted with 64-33 and 72-34 home wins over Lighthouse Christian and Raft River of Malta last weekend.

The other Northside contender is Camas County of Fairfield with its outstanding senior Beth McLam. A second-team All-Northside player, McLam (21 points) topped the Mushers (1-0) in their 31-21 season-opening home win over Castleford Saturday.

On the Carey junior varsity coached by Vee Peterson are sophomores Jennifer Cenarrusa, Katie Patterson and transfer student Kendra Olson, plus freshmen Kayla Bailey, Emily Butcher, Kelsey Green, Shelby Hansen, Ashley Harshbarger and Chelsey Hunt.

2005-06 Carey Girls Basketball Schedule

A total 19 games on the season schedule for the 2005-06 Carey girls' varsity cagers; 9 home and 10 away. All home games at Carey School gym. Of the 19 games, 10 are Northside Conference contests. All home varsity games in bold. In general, starting times are 6 p.m. JV and 7:30 p.m. varsity. When the girls and boys play on the same night, in most of those cases the girls' JV starts at 4:30 p.m. and the girls' varsity at 6 p.m.

DATE, DAY OPPONENT LOCATION

Nov. 16, Wednesday Clark County Home, 6:00/7:30

Nov. 17, Thursday Oakley Away, 6:00/7:30

Nov. 29, Tuesday Community School* Home, 6:00/7:30

Dec. 1, Thursday Richfield* Away, 6:00/7:30

Dec. 2, Friday Carey Holiday Tourney (V) Home, 5:00

Dec. 3, Saturday Carey Holiday Tourney (V) Home, 6:30

Dec. 6, Tuesday Shoshone* Away, 6:00/7:30

Dec. 8, Thursday ISDB (freshmen) Home, 6:00

Dec. 9, Friday Murtaugh tournament (V) Murtaugh, TBA

Dec. 10, Saturday Murtaugh tournament (V) Murtaugh, TBA

Dec. 13, Tuesday Richfield* Home, 6:00/7:30

Dec. 15, Thursday Camas County* Home, 4:30/6:00

Dec. 16, Friday Comm. School* Sun Valley, 3:00/6:00

Dec. 21, Wednesday Clark County Dubois, 3:00/4:30

Jan. 3, Tuesday Bliss (JV) Home, 4:30

Jan. 5, Thursday Dietrich* Away, 6:00/7:30

Jan. 7, Saturday Oakley Home, 4:30/6:00

Jan. 10, Tuesday Bliss (JV) Away, 4:30

Jan. 12, Thursday ISDB (freshmen) Gooding, 6:00

Jan. 13, Friday Shoshone* Home, 6:00/7:30

Jan. 14, Saturday Hansen Away, 3:00/6:00

Jan. 17, Tuesday Dietrich* Home, 6:00/7:30

Jan. 19, Thursday Camas County* Fairfield, 6:00/7:30

Jan. 25, Wednesday Northside 1A Sub-District (V/JV) Shoshone

Jan. 26, Thursday Northside 1A Sub-District (V/JV) Shoshone

Jan. 28, Saturday Northside 1A Sub-District (V/JV) Shoshone

Jan. 30, Monday Northside 1A Sub-District championship Shoshone

Feb. 1, Wednesday Northside 1A Sub-District second-place game Shoshone

Feb. 8, Wednesday Fourth District 1A finals Murtaugh

Feb. 15, Wednesday State 1A tournament Nampa

NOTES— At the Carey Holiday Tournament, Carey plays Challis the first night, Dec. 2, at 5 p.m. in the new gym, with the winner going against the winner of Hansen and Mackay for the championship Dec. 3.........The 2006 Northside 1A Sub-District girls' BB tournament is Jan. 25-26, Jan. 28, Jan. 30 and Feb. 1 at Shoshone High School, followed by the state-qualifying Fourth District 1A finals Wednesday, Feb. 8 at a Southside location. The combined Northside/Southside gets 5 berths to state, with the Northside assured of state berths for its top two teams....The 16-team State 1A girls' tournament is Feb. 15-18, 2006 at Nampa (Feb. 15-16) and Skyview (Feb. 15-18) high schools.




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