They started the season with a five-game winning streak, and Wood River High School girls' varsity basketball players ran their current winning streak to five Thursday night with a 51-17 home victory over the Canyon Ridge Riverhawks.
Senior Monica Garceau (8.2 ppg) scored a season-high 15 points leading 10 Wolverines in the scoring column for coach Mendy Benson's Wolverines (10-1, 3-1 league). Canyon Ridge (0-12, 0-5) stayed winless.
Benson said, "I am super happy with Monica. She played with the boys all last spring at open gyms and it continues to pay off for her. She played awesome against Canyon Ridge—did a great job of getting open and finishing in the paint. She also did a solid job defensively."
Wood River (4-1 home, 5-0 road) surged ahead 32-10 at halftime and finished up a 34-point victory.
Benson said, "It was a great win—they all are. It was great to have everyone get a lot of playing time and have some confidence boosters. Kelly Chapman, Brooke Bowers and Haillie Taylor (a JV slider) all scored in the fourth quarter. That was awesome for them."
Rounding out Wolverine scorers were Haylee Thompson 8 points, Kaitana Martinez 6, Allie Hesteness 5, Cheyenne Swanson 5, Chapman 4, Brooke Bowers 2, Jade Glenn 2, Tristin Bowers 2 and Taylor 2.
It was a good tune-up for Wood River's trip to Rupert Tuesday night for a pre-Christmas Great Basin Conference match against the highly regarded Minico Spartans (8-3, 3-1).
"We started talking about Minico last night in the locker room," said
Benson on Friday, in the wake of the Canyon Ridge league victory.
She added, ""It will another huge nailbiter I presume. They have 10 guards and no posts, so it will be interesting to see whether our posts choose to play to our advantage or not. Minico is tremendously fast and has great outside shooters. They play very scrappy defense and make it hard for you to execute your offense."
Ranked #1 in the Idahosports.com poll, two-time defending league champ Jerome (11-1, 5-0) ran its winning streak to 10 games with 49-30 and 52-26 league wins over Minico and Burley last week.
In another game, Burley (7-5, 2-3) defeated visiting Twin Falls (5-6, 1-4) by a score of 34-29 Thursday.
Wood River has four home games remaining, starting with the Tuesday, Jan. 5 non-conference contest against the Wendell Trojans on the Hailey hardwoods. Then the Wolverines visit Jerome Jan. 7.
Wood River sophomore guard Kaitana Martinez drives through the Burley defense during her team’s 38-29 league victory Dec. 15 in Hailey. Photo by David N. Seelig
