The Buhl Tribe wasn't the strongest team they'll play all season, but Wood River High School girls' varsity basketball players relished Saturday's 45-23 home non-league victory over Buhl at the Hailey gym.
One reason—it was Wood River's first win after six losses, and 12 straight setbacks dating back to last season. Another reason—Saturday's victory capped a strong week for the Wolverines that included Thursday's hard-fought 65-53 conference loss at Minico.
"I felt we played our best game of the season," said Wood River coach Brent Carnduff about Thursday's Great Basin Conference West league debut against Minico at Rupert.
The Hailey offense is starting to pick up. Last year's 4-16 Wolverine squad averaged 31.3 ppg with a high of 45 points. This year's team is at 36.7 ppg and has 42-, 53- and 45-point efforts in its last three outings.
Wood River (1-6, 0-1 league) scored in double digits in every period against Buhl (2-5) Saturday—and that's something that never happened last season. Leading scorer Lauren Morgenthaler (16 points, 5 boards) scored 8 points in each half.
Morgenthaler (11.4 ppg) went over 600 points in her Wolverine career. Now with 614, she needs only 26 more to pull past Tara Pyle and into third place on the all-time list.
Despite cold shooting, the Wolverines ran their offense well and built a 21-9 lead at the half. Their scrappy defense put a lot of pressure on the perimeter and Buhl turnovers (19) piled up. In contrast the Wolverines had only 9 turnovers.
Seven different Wolverines scored including Hannah Ward (7 points, 4 rebounds, 6 steals, 3 assists), Monica Garceau (6 points, 2 boards), Taylor Hayes (5 points), Madison Gove (5 points), Sam Engel (4 points, 6 rebounds) and Tasha Karst (2 points, 3 rebounds). Other Hailey contributors were Allie Freund (2 steals, 3 assists) and Alex Lindbloom (2 assists).
Wood River out-rebounded the shorter Buhl team 25-11.
In Thursday's game at Minico (4-2, 1-0), Wood River scratched, clawed and pulled within a bucket of the favored Spartans in the third. But the Wolverines have never beaten Minico in girls' basketball and the Spartans prevailed by 12.
Carnduff said, "We out-rebounded them 31-19 but struggled with their speed. Their dribble penetration kept us off balance and they hit some key 3-point shots."
Garceau, a 5-10 sophomore post, had a break-out game with 10 of her season-high 12 points in the third quarter. That was a period when Morgenthaler (13 points, 5-for-8 charities) was sitting with four personal fouls.
Other Wolverine scorers were Engel (8 points, 4-for-7 free throws), Gove 6 points, Lindbloom 5, Ward 4, Freund 3 and Hayes 2. Minico's well-balanced attack featured six players with 8 points or better.
Wood River hosted reigning State 4A champ Burley (4-3, 0-1 league) Tuesday and goes to Pocatello Saturday. Burley dropped a 55-52 home OT game to Jerome last week and then the Bobcats won at Pocatello 45-42 Friday. Filer (3-2) visits Hailey Tuesday, Dec. 11.
The Wolverine junior varsity (1-6) also captured its first win Saturday, by a close 30-26 score over Buhl. Grace Lagodich, a 5-8 sophomore wing, tallied 7 of her game-high 14 points in the fourth helping Wood River hold off the Tribe.
Other JV scorers were Taylor Gove 6 points, Ellen Johnson 4, Cassi Gorringe 4 and Jade Glenn 2. It was the first win for new JV coach J.C. Nemecek. Replacing Kim Young, who is four months pregnant, Nemecek returned to a familiar bench role. He was Wood River's varsity girls' coach for 10 years from 1990-00.
Wood River sophomore post Monica Garceau came into her own with 12 points in last Thursday?s 12-point league road loss to Minico. Here, Garceau (6 points) puts the ball on the floor and gets a step on the Buhl Tribe defense Saturday.
