The top-ranked Carey School boys' varsity basketball team (18-2, 14-0 league) has run the table in the Northside Conference and will try to win the eight-team league tournament starting today at Dietrich.
Coach Dick Simpson's Panthers, gunning for their fifth consecutive 20-win season, beat the Bliss Bears 65-48 on "Senior Night" Monday to complete a 10-0 homecourt campaign. Carey will be trying to attain its 14th state berth in 18 years.
The top-seeded Panthers will also be shooting for their fifth Northside tournament title in eight years when they tip off against the #8-seeded Community School Cutthroats (13-6, 9-4) today at 3 p.m. in the opening tournament game at Dietrich.
Community School headmaster Andy Jones-Wilkins will coach the Cutthroats today, since head coach Ed Flory and assistant coach Jim Carkonen have refused to coach the team in the tournament because star player Daniel Gomis (347 points, 20.4 ppg) can't play in the post-season.
Gomis, a 6-9 junior international student from Senegal, was technically ineligible to compete for the Cutthroat varsity this season because of a new Idaho High School Activities Association rule pertaining to foreign exchange students.
However, member schools of the Northside Conference voted 7-1 to allow Gomis' participation in 2009-10 regular-season varsity games—on the condition that he couldn't play in the 2010 Northside tournament.
Gomis ended his season Friday in a 49-27 Cutthroat league win at Richfield. He scored 26 points, the 10th time he has scored 20-or-more in 17 games. Other scorers were Dane Inman with a season-high 13, Will Brokaw 6, Tanner Flanigan 2 and Hunter Weaver 2.
In Monday's Carey game, 11 Panthers scored against Bliss led by Brett Adamson and Wacey Barg with 12 points each. Others were Blair Peck 9, Trevor Peck 8, Tyler Chavez 5, Jacy Baird 5, Tyler Willis 4, Shane Bingham 3, Caleb Cenarrusa 3, Dillon Simpson 2 and Joey Laidlaw 2.
Other first-round Northside match-ups today are #4 Camas County (7-11, 5-9) vs. #5 Richfield (6-14, 5-9) at 4:30 p.m.; #3 Dietrich (13-6, 9-5) vs. #6 Bliss (5-12, 4-10) at 6 p.m.; and #2 Murtaugh (14-4, 10-4) vs. #7 Magic Valley Christian (0-16, 0-12) at 7:30 p.m.
The winner of Carey-Community School goes against the winner of Camas-Richfield Monday, Feb. 22 at 6 p.m., while the losers of those two match-ups play at 3 p.m. next Monday at Dietrich. Former Community School girls' coach Ryan Waterfield plans to coach the Fish boys Monday.
Other news: Senior Kole Krosch scored a single-game school record 40 points as the Mackay Miners (15-1) closed out the season Friday with a 91-61 home win over Sho-Ban.
WRHS cagers look to stay alive in GBC tourney
The Idaho 4A top-ranked Twin Falls Bruins (18-2) are seeking their first berth in the State 4A boys' basketball tournament as the Great Basin Conference meet heads into its second round Thursday, Feb. 18.
State champions at the 5A level for coach Matt Harr in 2006 and third-place finishers last March, Twin Falls is the top-seeded team in the six-team tournament. The Minico Spartans (15-5) are second.
Coach John Radford's #6-seeded Wood River Wolverines (2-16) opened their GBC tournament quest Tuesday at #3-seeded Jerome (11-9). Jerome is the defending conference champ and last year's State 4A third-place team, but Twin Falls wasn't in the 2009 league.
The other first-round match-up Tuesday was #4 Burley (9-11) hosting #5 Canyon Ridge (4-15). Loser of that game plays the loser of Wood River-Jerome Thursday at 7 p.m. If it's Canyon Ridge vs. WRHS, Canyon Ridge hosts in Twin Falls.
Wood River had a tough assignment in its regular-season finale Friday, traveling to #2-ranked Hillcrest of Idaho Falls (17-3). Nailing 10 3-pointers and getting points from all 12 players, the Knights won for the 16th time in 17 games 72-43.
Leading scorer Stone Sutton (8.2 ppg) matched his season-high with 16 points including five 3-pointers and the Wolverines (33.7 ppg) had one of their better nights on offense—including eight 3-pointers.
Other scorers were Juan Martinez 7 points, Kevin Jensen 7, Keven Abbott 6, Alex Padilla 3, Quentin Dowdle 2 and Olle Hoeglund 2.
Wrestlers beat Gooding, GBC meet today
The Wood River High School wrestling team is off to the Great Basin Conference tournament today, Wednesday, Feb. 17. There, wrestlers from six schools will try to qualify for the State 4A tournament Feb. 26-27 at Holt Arena, Pocatello.
Minico High School in Rupert hosts today's conference tournament starting at 11 a.m. The six-school league gets four state representatives from each of 14 weight classes for the 53rd annual Idaho Wrestling Championships next weekend.
Jerome won last year's seven-school tournament at Preston by 30 points over Minico. Wood River qualified six for state last year—and Tyler Bartlett, Tanner Orchard, Nick Chase are still on the team and battling for a trip.
"We have high hopes for several of our wrestlers," said coach Shawn Huntington.
Wood River tuned up for the conference meet by beating the host Gooding Senators 70-12 in Thursday's dual meet season finale. The Wolverines finished 9-9 in duals. "A big accomplishment, since we started 1-5 in dual meets," the coach said.
The Wolverines came up with eight pins at Gooding and won two matches by five-point technical falls and two by forfeit. Forfeit winners were juniors Eric DeLeon at 140 and Alex Thomas at 285. Bartlett, a junior, won a 19-3 match at 112 and sophomore Andrew Beck took a 22-7 technical fall at 125.
Winning by pin at Gooding were seniors Chase at 145 and Orchard at 152, junior Kasey Barker at 189, sophomores Zach Brown at 130 and J.R. Hill at 171, and freshmen Tim Boyle at 119, Tommy Bailey 135 and Storm Anderson at 160 pounds.
At today's conference meet, the Wood River seeds are:
1—Thomas at 285. 2—Jared Anderson 103 and Auden Ruhter 215. 3—Chase 145 and Barker 189. 4—Boyle 119, Bailey 135, Orchard 152 and Tyler Jaramillo at 171. 5—Bartlett 112 and Beck 125. 6—Anderson 160 and Colton Seely 185.
Carey senior Dillon Simpson blocks a shot during a Northside Conference home game against Dietrich Jan. 26. Carey won 74-53. Photo by David N. Seelig
