Hailey resident Brent Carnduff, most successful girls' basketball coach in Wood River High School history, has decided to resign from that position at the end of the 2007-08 season after eight campaigns.
Carnduff, 42, told the current Wolverine team of his plans to resign Jan. 14. The Hemingway Elementary School physical education teacher said he wanted to spend more time with his son, seventh-grade student Daniel Carnduff, and fourth-grade daughter Ashley.
"I can't stress how much I've enjoyed this group of girls. They're fun, they work hard and they want to get better. And we have some good young players coming up," he said.
Carnduff has been involved with Wood River girls' basketball for 12 years. He started the Sun Valley Storm feeder program for fifth- through eighth-grade players. And he enjoyed immediate success as the seventh head coach of the Hailey program since it began in 1975.
In his first four years from 2000-04, Carnduff's Wolverines teams went 58-34 and achieved the program's high-water mark in 2004—earning Wood River's first district title in 24 years and making the school's first trip to the state tournament.
Wood River's rise from the 3A student population ranks to the more competitive Idaho 4A division hasn't been kind to the girls' basketball team.
The Wolverines are 11-68 since moving to 4A, have won four of 41 road games and are in the midst of a four-season, 28-game losing streak in the Great Basin Conference West.
Still, Carnduff (69-102) has won the most games of any Wood River girls' cage coach.
"Senior Night" Thursday
Coach Carnduff will salute three Wood River seniors during the varsity's "Senior Night" Thursday, Jan. 24. The special celebration will take place during the home Great Basin Conference games with Pocatello at the high school gym, Hailey.
The basketball seniors are Lauren Morgenthaler, Hannah Ward and Tasha Karst. Joining them will be senior cheerleaders Sydney Spiller, Taryn Bryson and Janette Estana.
Wood River, which plays at undefeated #top-ranked 3A Kimberly (17-0, averaging 55.0 ppg) tonight, Wednesday, had one of its best games this season at Pocatello Dec. 8 before falling losing 34-31. Pocatello (7-10) has lost six of its last seven.
Tonight's game at Kimberly means the Wolverines (2-14, 0-6 league) will have played three of the top teams in the Gem State over an eight-day stretch.
On Thursday, top-ranked 4A Bonneville (18-0) started slowly at home but came on like gangbusters in the second half to beat Wood River 55-23 in Idaho Falls. The Bees drilled eight 3-pointers led by Kim Barnes (14 points, four 3-pointers).
Morgenthaler scored 12 points to lead the Wolverines and five players scored two points each—Sam Engel, Madison Gove, Ward, Karst and Hanna Gustafson. Monica Garceau had a single point.
Last Tuesday Wood River fell at home 51-27 to the #2-ranked Jerome Tigers. Wolverine scorers were Morgenthaler 11, Engel 10, Ward 3, Taylor Hayes 2 and Gustafson 1.
The Great Basin Conference tournament begins Tuesday, Jan. 29 with #4-seeded Wood River likely traveling to Jerome (17-1, 5-0) in the first round. Jerome clinches the top seed in the conference tourney with a home win over Burley (13-5, 4-1) tonight, Wednesday.
Panthers, Fish move on after showdown
An intriguing Northside Conference boys' basketball pennant race has reached its homestretch after Tuesday night's rematch between Carey School and The Community School of Sun Valley, in Carey.
Idaho 1A #2-ranked Carey (12-2, 7-1 league) put its 6-0 home record and four-game win streak on the line against one of the best Cutthroat teams (9-3, 5-3) in recent memory.
After Tuesday's rematch of Carey's 29-point rout of the Cutthroats Dec. 14 in Sun Valley, The Community School plays its biggest game of the season Thursday at Shoshone (7-7, 4-3). A Cutthroat win over Shoshone would nearly assure the Sun Valley boys of the third seed in the seven-team Northside tournament.
Carey, meantime, hosts Dietrich (5-11, 3-5) Friday, Jan. 25 and has its home rematch with #1-ranked Richfield (13-0, 7-0) Tuesday, Jan. 29.
Coach Dick Simpson's Panthers breezed to a 62-27 league win over Camas County at Fairfield Friday. Sophomore Dillon Simpson burned it for 17 points, Kade Peterson added 15 and Heith Adamson 10.
The Cutthroats of coach Mike Wade split a pair of road league games last week, winning 47-19 at Bliss Friday and turning around Saturday to drop a hard fought 62-58 barnburner at Dietrich. That was the first Fish road loss.
At Bliss, seniors Mac Whittington (20.5 ppg) and Spencer Harris (12.5 ppg) led the Cutthroats, who scored 33 of their 47 points after intermission on 57% field goal shooting in the final two periods.
Whittington had another double/double (23 points, 15 rebounds, 7 steals, 3 blocks) and Harris scored 10. Senior Ian Ingram played fine defense on Bliss' top scorer Cole Erkins (5 points). Lucas Vorsteveld (4 points, 7 rebounds, 6 steals) had a strong game.
Saturday's exciting game at Dietrich presented the Cutthroats with two major challenges—early foul trouble and Dietrich's tough pressing defense plus a significant rebounding edge for the host Blue Devils. Still the Cutthroats fought back from a five-point halftime deficit into a 42-42 tie.
"Foul trouble dictated our lineup and our ability to defend throughout the second half. It was a tough loss to a team we beat by 19 in December," said Wade. "Still we had three players in double figures and scored 58 points."
Contributors were Spencer Harris (season-high 22 points, two 3-pointers, 4 assists), Whittington (18 points, 9 boards, 4 blocks), Ingram (12 points, two 3s, 5 steals), Travis Stone (2 points, 3 rebounds), Max Harris (2 points, 5 assists) and Vorsteveld (2 points, 3 rebounds).
The Cutthroats have added non-conference games with the high-scoring Sho-Ban Chiefs. They are Monday, Feb. 4 at 5 p.m. (JV) and 6:30 p.m. (varsity) at The Fish Tank.
Burley boys take Wolverines to school
It wasn't a good week for Wood River High School boys' basketball.
The Wolverine varsity lost 6-5 senior center Erik Jacobson (9.3 ppg) for the rest of the season Wednesday and also lost big time in home Great Basin Conference West games to highly regarded 4A opponents Jerome and Burley.
Defending State 4A champion Burley (14-0, 2-0 league) won its 34th consecutive game Friday by a 63-40 score over Wood River on the Hailey court. Eight Bobcats scored and four were in double digits.
The Wolverines (4-10, 0-4 league) had a slow start and didn't score their first point until junior Brian Tidwell (6 points, 5 rebounds) made a putback as the first quarter expired, Burley leading 15-2.
Idaho's #1-ranked 4A team Burley, with eight seniors for coach Jack Bagley, was led by 6-5 post Jordan Hosteen (15 points, 6 rebounds), 6-6 junior post Kyle Hepworth (12 points), 6-1 senior Brad Caresia (10) and 6-3 senior wing Ben Searle (10).
Wood River leading scorer Matt Staskiewicz (11.2 ppg) paced the home team with 13 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals and 3 assists. Other contributors were junior Greg Wakefield (9 points, 5 rebounds), junior Michale Brunker (5 points), soph Keven Abbott (4 points), junior Alberto Vazquez (2 points, 2 boards) and senior Pat Patterson (1 point).
Coach John Radford's Wolverines have lost their four Great Basin West games by an average 23.0 ppg and are now waiting for the top three league teams to hash it out to determine which top-seeded team Wood River will visit in the first round of the league tournament Feb. 12.
Burley hosts #4-ranked Jerome (10-4, 2-1) on Thursday, Jan. 24 and visits #3-ranked Minico (10-4, 2-1) in Rupert on Wednesday, Jan. 30. Wood River hosts Minico Friday, Jan. 25 at the high school in Hailey.
First, Wood River travels to Idaho Falls tonight, Wednesday for a non-league game against the Hillcrest Knights. Hillcrest (5-9) didn't have much of an inside attack in its 68-47 home loss to Bonneville (8-6) Friday. But the Knights, 50-40 winners over Wood River in Hailey Dec. 18, shot 7-for-17 3-pointers.
Jacobson, who could be lost for a substantial part of the 2008 baseball season because of shoulder surgery, finished his three-year Wood River basketball career with 431 points.
Northside girls take a more leisurely pace
Stretched over two weeks instead of the usual jam-packed one week of games, the 2008 Northside 1A Sub-District girls' basketball tournament will offer a new set of challenges for many of the six teams.
The Northside tournament opens today, Wednesday with two games at Shoshone—#5-seeded Community School against #4-seeded Dietrich at 6 p.m. and #3-seeded Shoshone against #6-seeded Camas County at 7:30 p.m.
Of course the main challenge is what to do with the defending State 1A champion Richfield Tigers (18-2, 10-0 league). This year's top-ranked 1A team brings a 14-game winning streak and 55.4 ppg scoring average into the two-week double elimination tourney.
Coach Lane Durtschi's Carey School girls (10-6, 7-3) face the challenge of being rusty going into the state-qualifying meet won last year by Richfield 36-31 over Shoshone. The Panthers earned the second seed by winning their final five games. But they'll be idle for nine days before playing their first game.
Featuring scoring balance with four players averaging between 6.8 ppg and 9.7 ppg, Carey plays the winner of Shoshone-Camas Monday, Jan. 28 at 7:30 p.m. in Shoshone. Carey has swept Shoshone (8-12, 6-4) during the season, by six points on the Indian court and five points in overtime on the Carey hardwoods.
Loser bracket games are Wednesday, Jan. 30 and the championship game is Saturday, Feb. 2. The league's second-place game is Monday, Feb. 4. This year, the combined 1A Northside-Southside gets five berths to the 16-team State 1A tourney Feb. 13-16 in Nampa.
Friday, Carey ended its regular season with a 58-28 Northside win over the Camas County Mushers (4-13, 0-10) at Fairfield. Sophomore Jessica Parke (9.7 ppg) scored a season-high 25 points and Shelby Hansen added 10 for Carey.
Coach Ryan Waterfield's Community School varsity (3-10, 2-8) dropped a 56-22 season-ending game Saturday at Dietrich (13-7, 5-5). Emily Eshman scored 8 points, Caroline Fairchild 6, Jessie Curran and Ricki Eshman 4 for the Fish.
The winner of tonight's Dietrich-Community School tournament game will tackle #1 Richfield next Monday at 6 p.m., while the loser will wait until next Wednesday to meet the loser of Carey vs. Shoshone/Camas.