It feels great to win your final home game, which is what The Community School boys' varsity basketball team accomplished Monday night against one of the top-ranked 1A schools in the state of Idaho.
Coach Mike Wade's Cutthroats (12-5, 7-2 home) put the skids on the eight-game winning streak of the Sho-Ban Chiefs (11-2) and held the Fort Hall freelancers 23 points below their season average in a 63-53 non-conference triumph at The Fish Tank in Sun Valley.
Sho-Ban, averaging 76.3 ppg, had lost only once this season by a 59-58 margin to Clark County of Dubois. Leading the Chiefs was 6-0 junior southpaw Magic Smith (28.5 ppg), the son of Chiefs coach Merle Smith.
Magic Smith (23 points, 16 rebounds, 7 steals, 6 assists) was everywhere for Sho-Ban, but the Cutthroats had an able counterpart to smiling Magic in their 6-6 senior post Mac Whittington (23 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks).
Whittington scored 6 points in an 8-0 Cutthroat second quarter run that turned a 22-17 Chiefs cushion into a 25-22 Cutthroat lead. The home team never trailed again, putting together a 9-3 run for a 42-36 advantage at the end of the third quarter when Smith left briefly with an ankle sprain.
In three seasons Whittington (19.2 ppg this winter) has 770 points in 53 games (14.5 ppg).
Travis Stone, one of five Cutthroat seniors playing their final home game, scored 8 of his season-high 11 points in the fourth quarter to help keep the Chiefs out of striking range. Stone added 13 rebounds, 3 steals and 5 assists in an outstanding all-around effort.
Wade said he was delighted that Stone decided to come out and play his first season of basketball for the Cutthroats this winter and help the team in so many ways.
Other Cutthroat contributors were Spencer Harris (14 points, 3 boards, 6 assists), Ian Ingram (11 points, 5 rebounds, 4 steals, 3 assists), Max Harris (4 points, 3 boards, 2 assists) and Lucas Vorsteveld (2 assists). Vidal LaVatta added 15 points for the Chiefs, who lost by only 3 points to eventual State 1A champion Genesee in one of last year's early-round games.
Friday the Cutthroats (7-5 league) dropped a 66-48 Northside Conference game at top-ranked Richfield (19-0, 11-0 league). "It was an excellent game deep into the third quarter but we couldn't keep pace with them down the stretch," said Wade about the battle.
Top contributors were Whittington (12 points, 9 boards), Spencer Harris (14 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists), Stone (10 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals), Max Harris (6 points, 8 rebounds) and Ingram (6 points, 2 steals, 4 assists). Matthew and Michael Lemaziz had 16 each.
The Northside Conference tournament opens Thursday, Feb. 7 at Shoshone, the #3-seeded Cutthroats playing their first game at 6:30 p.m. against the league's #6-seeded team.
In Monday's JV game the Cutthroats (4-13) broke a 44-44 tie in the final 27 seconds and defeated Sho-Ban 47-44. Chet Stephens (9 points) made a technical free throw for a 45-44 lead and Will Weston (10 points) sank a basket on a pass by Eli Albarran to clinch the win. Paul Davis (17 points) and Albarran (9 points) also scored.
Carey beats Shoshone, Gooding
The #4-ranked Carey Panthers (16-3, 10-2 league) made it eight wins in nine games down the stretch with a 52-36 home non-conference win over the 3A Gooding Senators (3-15) Monday night on the Carey floor.
Senior Kade Peterson (8.0 ppg) matched his season high with 16 points and leading scorer D.J. Simpson (15.0 ppg) added 14 points for Carey. The Panther defense (39.1 ppg) blanked Gooding 13-0 in the second quarter when Carey took control after trailing 17-11 at the end of the first period.
Carey also won at Shoshone 54-37 Friday night with D.J. Simpson scoring 17 points and Tyler Parke (9.2 ppg) adding 14. Shoshone (9-10, 5-6) ended up as the fourth seed and will play #5-seeded Dietrich (7-12, 4-7) in the Northside tournament's first round Thursday at 5 p.m.
The #2-seeded Carey varsity will play the #7-seeded team, either Camas County or Bliss, in the 8 p.m. game Thursday.
A win in that game would most likely put Carey up against the #3-seeded Community School Cutthroats Friday, Feb. 8 at 6:30 p.m. for the right to likely clash with top-seeded defending tournament champ Richfield in the title game Monday, Feb. 11 at 7:30 p.m.
The Carey JV has the top seed for the four-team Northside Conference junior varsity tournament starting Thursday in Shoshone. Carey's first-round game is Thursday at 3:30 p.m. against #4-seeded defending champion Dietrich. The championship game is Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at Shoshone.
