Riding a season-best 27 points by 6-6 senior post Mac Whittington (23.0 ppg), the unbeaten Community School boys' varsity basketball team turned up the heat in the second half and defeated visiting Dietrich 62-43 in Northside Conference action Tuesday evening.
Coach Mike Wade's Community School boys (6-0, 2-0 league), ranked second behind #1 Richfield in the Idahosports.com 1A boys' poll, set up an early-season Northside showdown with #3-ranked Carey tonight at The Fish Tank in Sun Valley.
Leading by only 25-22 at halftime over Dietrich (1-5, 0-2), the Cutthroats picked up their 62.8 ppg offense with a 19-8 edge in third quarter and 18-13 cushion in the fourth. Spencer Harris added 11 points, Ian Ingram (two 3-pointers) 9, Travis Stone 7, Max Harris 4 and Lucas Vorsteveld 4 for the Cutthroats.
Carey, coming off its Carey Holiday Tournament championship effort Saturday, took a 4-0 mark into its first Northside game Thursday night at home against Camas County.
Tuesday night's prep summary
Two of Blaine County's girls' basketball teams played close games but ultimately fell in Tuesday action.
Wood River (1-9, 0-2 league) sliced a 15-point deficit down to three points with less than a minute remaining before falling to Filer (4-4) by a 42-37 score on the Hailey hardwoods. Host Filer had beaten Wood River by 22 points on Nov. 10.
After trailing 27-16 at halftime, coach Brent Carnduff's Wolverines started running their offense better and outscored Filer 21-15 after half. The Wolverines out-rebounded Filer 30-19 and shot a heady 9-for-10 from the free throw line in the fourth.
"Filer was pressing and that got us playing too fast on offense in the first half," said Carnduff. "We slowed it down, worked the ball inside and looked for the open pass. And I was really pleased with our man-to-man defense. We didn't rely on help defense so much after the half, and it took away their open passes.
"We're young, but the girls have been playing hard and we're on a pretty good roll the last few games."
Contributors were Sam Engel (season-best 10 points, 10 rebounds), Hannah Ward (7 points, 11 boards, 3 assists), Taylor Hayes (6 points, 4-5 charities, 3 steals, 3 assists), Lauren Morgenthaler (6 points), Hanna Gustafson (2 points, 3 boards), Allie Freund 2 points, Monica Garceau (2 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals) and Madison Gove (2 points).
Losers by 36 points at Richfield Nov. 29, the host Carey girls (3-4, 1-2) did a much better job this time and held defending State 1A champ Richfield to a 45-41 win, at Carey. Kelsey Green (a season-high 14 points) topped Carey while Amy Ellsworth (8 points), Kayla Bailey (6), Jessica Parke (6), Shelby Hansen (5) and Jenn Cenarrusa (2) also chipped in.
