The Carey High School girls' varsity basketball team started district tournament play in fine fashion Wednesday, crushing the Camas County Mushers 66-21 on the hardwoods in Dietrich.
The Community School Cutthroats didn't fare as well in the opening round of the six-team Northside 1A Sub-District tournament, falling to host Dietrich 45-39.
Carey 66, Camas 21
The high scoring 10-8 Panther girls are on a bit of a roll. The victory over Camas (2-15) gave them three straight and four wins in their last five games.
Normally known for her ability to set up scoring opportunities, Carey point guard Jennifer Cenarrusa scored a season high 17 points to lead the Panther onslaught.
"She got a lot of fast breaks, got a lot of steals and got 17 points, so she played pretty good," said Panther coach Lane Durtschi.
Two other Panthers hit double digits. Allison Shaffer scored 13 points and Jessica Parke added 10.
The Carey scoring was rounded out by Kelsey Green with nine, Kayla Bailey with eight, Amy Ellsworth with five and Kendra Olsen with four.
Durtschi said his team is peaking at the right time, but the competition stiffened Thursday night when the Panthers faced the 14-6 Shoshone Indians, the 2005 1A state champions.
"We've got a tough game tonight," Durtschi said Thursday morning. "But we've been playing pretty good, so if we keep that up we might actually pull off the upset."
The winner of the Carey-Shoshone game faces the winner of a Thursday Richfield-Dietrich contest on Monday at 7:30 p.m. for the sub-district championship prize. The top-ranked 19-1 Richfield Tigers are favored to take top honors.
Dietrich 45, Community School 39
The Cutthroats found themselves in the consolation bracket after a closely fought but losing battle to the 7-12 Dietrich Blue Devils.
The Community School (3-11) led 8-7 at the end of the first quarter, but found itself trailing 19-14 at the halftime break. Third quarter play gave Dietrich more of a cushion as they led at its end 36-27. The Cutthroats outscored Dietrich 12-9 in the final frame, but it wasn't enough to catch the Blue Devils.
Amaya Ingram led the Cutthroats with 11 points, followed by Cody Curran with 10. Jessie Curran scored eight points, Caroline Fairchild added six and Emily Eshman and Jean Montgomery chipped in with two apiece.
Dietrich was led by Jesse Dill with 13 and Tammy Anderson with 12.
The Cutthroats play Saturday at 6 p.m. against the loser of Thursday's Carey-Shoshone contest. Camas will face the loser of Thursday's Richfield-Dietrich game Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
