Coach Lane Durtschi is hopeful his Carey School girls' varsity basketball team (13-9) is peaking at the right time for the eight-school State 1A Division 2 Real Dairy Shootout tournament starting Thursday, Feb. 19 at Nampa High School.
The Panthers, coming off two hard-fought losses in the final games of last week's Northside Conference tournament, will open the three-day tournament Thursday at 8 p.m. against Summit Academy of Cottonwood, the northern Idaho champion.
Located outside Cottonwood, Summit Academy (18-4) is an independent accredited private school operated by lay Catholics. Summit Academy is making its first visit to the Idaho High School Activities Association state girls' tournament. Meanwhile, Carey is making its sixth state trip—and second in a row.
Carey returns six players from last year's 13-10 team that won its opening game in the then-16-team State 1A tourney by a 52-43 score over Kootenai, then lost 47-23 to eventual state champion Genesee and exited with a 41-39 loss to Rockland.
It's possible that Carey got a better state tournament draw in Summit Academy by losing to the Dietrich Blue Devils 61-57 Saturday night in the second-place game of the Northside Conference tournament in Dietrich. By winning that grudge match, Dietrich (18-6) drew #3-ranked Garden Valley (18-2) for its first game Thursday at 6:15 p.m.
The winners of Carey-Summit Academy and Dietrich-Garden Valley will play Friday at 3 p.m. at Nampa High School. The losers of those first-round games will clash Friday night at 8 p.m. to stay alive.
On the other side of the state bracket are Mackay (10-8) against top-ranked Greenleaf Friends Academy (19-4) Thursday at 1:15 p.m., and unbeaten Northside champion Richfield (22-0) against North Gem of Bancroft (16-8) Thursday at 3 p.m.
Championship game is Saturday, Feb. 21 at 9:30 a.m. at The Idaho Center in Nampa. This is the first year the Idaho 1A small schools have been separated into Division 1 and 2.
The Panthers played extremely well in their final Northside games last week but came up a little short in the final scores—thanks in large part to the outside shooting of Richfield's Teenie Kent (21 points) in Friday's 50-45 loss and the combined 35 points by Dietrich's Jesse Dill and Moriah Dill in Saturday's 61-57 loss.
Carey senior Kelsey Green (7.3 ppg) was productive for the well-balanced Panthers. She scored a team-high 14 points including four 3-pointers against Richfield. Green added three more 3s against Dietrich.
Leading scorer Jessica Parke (11.0 ppg) topped Carey with 14 points against Dietrich and senior Shelby Hansen (4.9 ppg) chipped in with a season-best 11. Another solid senior, Kayla Bailey (4.9 ppg) added a season-high 12 against Dietrich.
Richfield captured its third straight Northside Conference title with its 50-45 win over Carey Friday night, and Dietrich earned second place 61-57 over Carey Saturday. Dietrich has won three of four meetings with Carey this season, and there could be another Friday, this one for a state championship berth.
Wrestlers head to Preston for Great Basin meet
Wood River High School wrestlers make the long trip to Preston in southeastern Idaho today, Wednesday for the seven-school Great Basin Conference tournament, which is a qualifying tourney for the State 4A meet Feb. 26-28 in Pocatello.
Five wrestlers from each of the 14 weight classes will qualify today for the 52nd annual State Wrestling Meet, to be held at Holt Arena next week. Wood River coach Tyson Young is hopeful the Wolverines will do better than last year's GBC meet.
Two-time defending GBC champion Minico of Rupert, sending 20 wrestlers to state last year, will lead the field for today's 11 a.m. meet. Wood River hosted the conference meet last year and placed seventh, with three wrestlers going to state.
Only three schools have won the conference title since it was first staged six years ago—Jerome in 2003 and 2004, Preston 2005 and 2006, and Minico the past two years.
Wolverine wrestlers tuned up for their conference trip during Thursday's "Senior Night" home finale against Gooding squad that featured one of the best young wrestlers seen here in many years, unbeaten freshman Brandon McBride at 145.
McBride, 14, is a Salt Lake City, Utah native who previously lived in the tiny town of Dayton near Preston in southeastern Idaho. He has been a national champion in Freestyle and Greco-Roman, and is now ranked #1 among Idaho 3A wrestlers at 145 pounds, and #4 at 145 among all divisions in the Gem State.
In Thursday's final varsity match, 2008 Bear Cat Invitational 145-pound champion McBride used his quickness and strength to overwhelm perhaps Wood River's best wrestler, junior Tanner Orchard. McBride led 12-2 after one period and pinned Orchard at the 3:10 mark.
McBride's impressive victory was one of five pins that enabled Gooding to beat Wood River 42-30. Because there were eight forfeited weight classes, only six weights were contested—and sophomore Andrew Orr with a 3:16 fall at 152 pounds was Hailey's only winner.
Gooding 42, Wood River 30
103—Tyler Bartlett (WR soph) won by forfeit.
112—Zach Brown (WR freshman) won by forfeit.
119—Christian Fontaine (G freshman) won by fall 3:34 over Andrew Beck (WR freshman).
125—Ellery Gil (G freshman) won by forfeit.
130—Double forfeit.
135—JR Hill (WR freshman) won by forfeit.
140—Derek Christiansen (G junior) won by fall 3:39 over Tyler Jaramillo (WR junior).
145—Brandon McBride (G freshman) won by fall 3:10 over Tanner Orchard (WR junior).
152—Andrew Orr (WR soph) won by fall 3:16 over Justin Steele (G freshman).
160—Michael Claiborn (G senior) won by forfeit.
171—Kasey Barker (WR soph) won by forfeit.
189—Kyle Sanders (G senior) won by fall 2:45 over JJ Thomson (WR senior).
215—Calvin Walgamott (G senior) won by fall 2:45 over Auden Ruhter (WR freshman).
285—Double forfeit.
Junior varsity matches
112—Christian Fontaine (G freshman) won 11-7 over Zach Brown (WR freshman).
119—Andrew Beck (WR freshman) won by fall 4:56 over Ellery Gil (G freshman).
145—Damon Hanson (G junior) won by fall 4:36 over Teague Ruhter (WR freshman).
145—Derek Christiansen (G junior) won by fall 3:20 over Teague Ruhter (WR freshman).
152—Andrew Orr (WR soph) won by fall 3:50 over Damon Hanson (G junior).
Jerome favored in 4A Great Basin boys
Seeking to dethrone two-time state champion Burley, the Idaho 4A #2-ranked Jerome Tigers (18-2, 6-0 league) were heavily favored to wrest control of the Great Basin Conference West boys' basketball tourney from Burley this week.
First, top-seeded Jerome had to knock off #4-seeded Wood River (2-16, 0-6) in Tuesday's opening round of the four-school meet. Jerome hosted the Wolverines, while #2-seeded Burley (9-11, 3-3) entertained #3 Minico (8-12, 3-3) in Tuesday's other first-round contest.
Burley, tied with Minico with three league victories, had to win on the road at Preston Friday to earn the home site for Tuesday's game. And the Bobcats won handily, 78-53.
With a loss to Jerome, Wood River would travel to the Burley-Minico loser Thursday, Feb. 19 for a 7 p.m. loser-out contest. Burley and Minico were the finalist teams in last year's Great Basin West tournament, Burley (27-0) beating Minico 66-39.
Coach John Radford's Wolverines had three games last week getting ready for the league tournament. They lost 67-53 at Pocatello last Tuesday, fell 66-26 to Minico at Rupert Thursday and then lost 60-52 to Mountain Home Saturday during "Senior Night" at the Hailey gym.
At Pocatello, leading scorer Bryan Tidwell (12.4 ppg) tallied 19 points and Clive Hope III (6.5 ppg) added a season-best 15 points but the Wolverines, after grabbing a 24-22 halftime lead, were outscored 45-29 in the second half. Tidwell's 10 points topped Wood River at Minico.
Ten Wolverines scored points in Saturday's run-and-gun home season finale against a Mountain Home squad (8-11) that had played 4A top-ranked Skyview (19-0) very tough Thursday before falling 67-57. Turnovers (21) continued to prevent Wood River from any consistency.
Mountain Home, leading only 22-16 at the half, buried seven of its nine 3-pointers after intermission. Senior guard Kyle Kerfoot (14 points, 3 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists) swished four of those seven 3-pointers in the second half. Also contributing for the Tigers was senior Alex Campbell (9 points, 4 boards, 3 blocks).
Tidwell (16 points, 10 rebounds) had his ninth straight double-digit game. Hope (10 points, 6 boards, 2 assists) added some strong minutes, while Michale Brunker (9 points, 3 rebounds) also finished up his home career and improved his team second-best 8.4 ppg scoring average.
Other contributors were Greg Wakefield (5 points, 5 rebounds), Jordan Doan (3 points, 2 boards), Stone Sutton (3 points), Juan Martinez (2 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 assists), Quentin Dowdle (2 points), Sean Bunce (1 point, 3 rebounds) and Keven Abbott (1 point).
The Wolverines out-rebounded Mountain Home 35-27, 20 of those Hailey boards coming in the first half when Tiger shooting was ice cold.
Carey senior Shelby Hansen (4.9 ppg) chipped in with a season-best 11 during Saturday’s 61-57 loss to Dietrich in the Northside Conference second-place tournament game, at Dietrich. Courtesy photo by John Peck.
