The Community School varsity boys basketball team had the "magic" on its side as the Fish defeated the Magic Valley Christian Conquerors 45-31 in a rag-tag up-and-down conference battle Tuesday in Jerome.
It was the first win of the season for coach Ed Flory's Cutthroats, and also the first win in Northside Conference league competition.
Bouncing back from a tough 29-point loss at the hands of Jerome's junior varsity Monday, the Cutthroats enjoyed a team feat—all players entered the scoring column and played an energized 32 minutes to capture their first league victory.
MVCS led at the end of the first period 11-6 behind the strong inside play of 6-6, 255-pound junior center Matt McClimans (14 points). But the determined Cutthroats battled back with a 15-point second period to take a 21-17 lead into the locker room.
The third period was all Community School. The swarming Cutthroat half-court press forced many turnovers leading to easy buckets at the other end. Sun Valley racked up eight unanswered points and outscored the Conquerors 15-4 in the third quarter.
The Cutthroat senior trio of Chet Stephens (9 points), Peter Atkinson (2 points) and Lucas Vorsteveld (9 points) sustained the fourth-period energy as the Fish cruised to a 14-point win and surpassed 40 points for the first time in three games.
Vorsteveld and junior speedster Tanner Flanigan (7 points) had solid overall games on the defensive and offensive ends. Will Weston (4 points) pulled several nice rebounds and continues to improve.
Casper Brun (4 points) struggled offensively but is a menacing competitive force, doing everything else on the floor to compliment the Cutthroat attack. Fast and athletic, it seems just a matter of time before he has a breakout game.
Floor general Paul Davis posted another strong performance, once again leading all Cutthroat scorers with his second consecutive 10-point effort.
Senior team captain Eddy Albarran remains on injured-reserve due to an earlier knee injury received in practice.
The first home games at the Fish Tank in Sun Valley for both the JV and varsity squads are today, Friday, Dec. 12 against Bliss at 6 p.m. JV and 7:30 p.m. for the varsity.
Sun Valley's Lady Cutthroats will start the evening with a 4:30 p.m. junior varsity contest against Bliss tonight.
The Cutthroat girls dropped a hard-fought 14-11 thriller Tuesday night to the Magic Valley Christian Academy Conquerors. Maggie Flood scored 5 points, Natalie Goddard 2, Chelsea Cloud 2 and Sophia Carkonen 2 for the Fish.
