Tuning up for its rematch with the Richfield Tigers, Idaho 1A #2-ranked Carey School (14-2, 9-1 league) put nine players in the scoring column and whipped the Dietrich Blue Devils 73-55 Friday night on the Big Blue Panther hardwoods.
Coach Dick Simpson's Panthers (56.0 ppg) hit a season-high total with the 73 points, 23 of them coming in the third quarter when Carey stretched its 10-point halftime lead to 60-42 at the break. In the process Carey swept the season series with Dietrich (6-12, 4-7 league).
The Panthers hosted top-ranked Richfield (17-0, 9-0 league) Tuesday night in a game that went a long way toward determining the Northside Conference regular-season champion and the first seed (and first round bye) in the league tournament starting Thursday, Feb. 7 at Shoshone.
Richfield, a 56-41 home winner over Carey Jan. 4, won last year's Northside meet after placing second to Carey in the regular season. The two teams have been in the league title game for four straight years, Carey winning in 2006 and 2004, and Richfield in 2007 and 2005.
Carey, unbeaten in eight games at home, is averaging 56.0 ppg while holding opponents to 38.9 ppg. Richfield is way up at 63.5 ppg offense. Both teams competed at the State 1A tournament in 2007, Richfield (20-7) going two-and-out and Carey (22-6) winning two of its four state games.
The leader in Carey's six-game win streak after its midseason loss at Richfield has been senior D.J. Simpson (15.2 ppg), who has scored 19.8 ppg in the streak. Simpson had a double double with 19 points/15 rebounds against Dietrich.
Senior Tyler Parke (9.3 ppg) added 13 points and 11 boards for Carey while 5-10 sophomore sharpshooter Trevor Peck (9.1 ppg) chipped in with 14 points including three 3-pointers. Peck has 30 of Carey's 51 3-pointers for the season.
Other Carey scorers were Blake Whitby 8 points, Kade Peterson 7, Tyler Wilde 5, Scott Ellsworth 4, Dillon Simpson 2 and Heith Adamson 1. Leading Dietrich were Jaren Stoddard (22) and Anthony Pitman (10).
Carey hosts 3A Gooding (3-14) Thursday, Jan. 31 for three home games starting at 4:30 p.m. and the Panthers go to Shoshone (7-9, 4-5) Friday. The "Senior Night" home finale against 2A Valley of Hazelton (11-7) is Tuesday, Feb. 5 at Carey. Valley (56-52 in OT Dec. 19) and Richfield are the only teams to have beaten Carey.
Hand wins at Sugar City
Wood River High School senior Collin Hand won four matches in the tough 189-pound class to grab the championship during the 17-team John Berry Invitational prep wrestling tournament that wrapped up Saturday at Sugar City.
Hand captured 16-0 and 16-1 technical falls over wrestlers from Soda Springs and Challis, then pinned third-place John Tucker of Firth in the semi-finals. Hand's 5-1 championship match decision came over Coltyn Cutler of Challis.
Wolverine junior Alex Jones placed sixth at 160 pounds with three match wins. Jones had a pin and 5-4 and 4-2 decisions, then fell 8-2 to fourth-place Austin Nielson of Bear Lake and 6-2 to Kaleb Latimer of Challis in the fifth-place match.
Hand's 4-0 record was the best of eight Wolverines who compiled an overall 10-15 record during the two-day tournament won by Challis 190-166.5 over defending State 2A team champion North Fremont of Ashton. Wood River placed 15th with 40.5 points.
Winning one match at Sugar City were 103-pounder Tyler Bartlett, 152-pounder Andrew Orr and 160-pounder Kasey Barker. Also competing were Tyler Jaramillo at 152, Willie Dugger at 160 and Juve Ruiz in the 171-pound weight class.
Coach Tyson Young summarized, "A successful tournament all around. A couple of guys really stepped up to battle their way through the tournament. Competing against some of the smaller schools allowed our guys to be successful."
Wood River travels to Rupert Thursday, Jan. 31 for a Great Basin Conference West dual meet against the reigning Great Basin champion Minico Spartans. Then it's on to the Challis Invitational Friday.
Cutthroat boys stave off Shoshone's upset bid 51-42
Coach Mike Wade's Community School Cutthroat boys have been playing well on the road this season, winning five of their seven road contests with strong offense (55.2 ppg) and consistent team defense.
The Cutthroats faced their toughest test of the season Thursday in a pivotal Northside Conference boys' basketball game against a Shoshone team that is always dangerous on its homecourt. At stake was the third seed in the seven-team Northside 1A Sub-District tournament starting Feb. 7 on the same Shoshone floor.
It was close all the way, right down to the final two-and-a-half minutes when it was still a two-point game. But the Cutthroats out-pointed Shoshone 17-10 in the fourth period to win the key contest 51-42.
Senior post Mac Whittington (19.5 ppg) finished with game-high 16 points plus 13 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocked shots to lead the Cutthroats (10-4, 6-4 league) to a season sweep of Shoshone (7-9, 4-5).
With last week's 27 points against Carey and Shoshone, Whittington (716 points in 50 games, 14.3 ppg) moved into second place on the all-time Cutthroat scoring list ahead of Jimmy Fairchild (698 points, 67 games) and behind leader John Hayes (901 points, 71 games).
Wade said about the Shoshone win, "The difference was we made our shots in the last couple of minutes and Shoshone didn't make theirs. We had everything working at the end, everyone involved and five players scoring."
By winning over an Indian team that had gone to its slowdown and given top-ranked Richfield a scare before losing 28-23 last Tuesday, the Cutthroats secured the third seed and will play either Camas County or Bliss in the first round, while Shoshone battles Dietrich (6-12, 4-7) in the other first-round game matching the fourth and fifth seeds.
Coach Wade knew it was going to be a tough game. He said, "Both teams got after it and made the other team work for everything.
"Although they are much shorter, Shoshone dominated us on the boards in the first half and had 11 second chances by getting offensive boards. They really came to rebound and it kept them in the game. But our guys came out committed to blocking out in the second half. Our defense was solid for us most of the game."
One important all-around player was senior Travis Stone (5 points, 7 rebounds, 4 offensive, 3 steals and 3-for-4 free throws in the fourth).
Senior Spencer Harris (12.2 ppg) posted his seventh straight double-digit scoring game. Contributors were Spencer Harris (10 points, 4 boards, 7 assists), Max Harris (10 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists), Ian Ingram (5 points, 4 boards, 7 assists) and Lucas Vorsteveld (5 points). Josh Olsen (10) topped Shoshone.
The Community School hosted Bliss (1-12, 1-8) for its "Senior Night" Tuesday and travels to Richfield (16-0, 9-0) Friday. 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.
Carey girls clash with Shoshone tonight
This week's snow and Monday's school cancellations caused a postponement in the Northside 1A Sub-District girls' prep basketball tournament being played at Shoshone.
Monday's games were rescheduled for today, and today's originally scheduled games shifted to Thursday.
Idle for 10 days, coach Lane Durtschi's #2-seeded Carey School girls (10-6, 7-3 league) will try to pick up the pace in their game against #3-seeded Shoshone (9-12, 6-4) tonight, Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
Defending State 1A champion Richfield (18-2, 10-0 league) plays #4-seeded Dietrich (14-7, 5-5) tonight at 6 p.m.
The Carey-Shoshone loser will play the #5-seeded Community School of Sun Valley (3-11, 2-8) Thursday, Jan. 31 at 6 p.m. followed by the loser of Richfield-Dietrich meeting #6-seeded Camas County (4-14, 0-10) Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
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.
