Struggling in the second half of a Great Basin Conference road game, the Wood River High School girls' basketball team (12-1, 5-1 league) still found a way to win Wednesday with a 40-34 victory over the Canyon Ridge Riverhawks.
Wood River's fourth straight win was due mainly to Kaitana Martinez's team-high 21 points and 17-for-26 production at the free throw line. Haillie Taylor "gave us some great minutes and KT played well," said Wol-verine coach Mendy Benson.
The coach added, "We played with passion and inten-sity for about four of the 32 minutes. Not good. We shot 25% as a team. And we did not click as a team at all for most of the second half."
Fortunately, Wood River built a 27-15 first-half lead over a Riverhawks squad (5-8, 1-5) that lost by 27 points in Hailey Dec. 2. Junior post Haylee Thompson (12.2 ppg) didn't score at all, shooting 0-for-8 from the field, after recording 12 straight double-digit efforts.
Senior Allie Hesteness (6 points) drilled two 3-pointers, Taylor (7 points, 3 rebounds, 2 steals) was a factor, and Chey-enne Swanson (4 points. 4 re-bounds) chipped in as well.
Canyon Ridge's 6-2 junior post Breyana Burk, held to 6 points in Hailey, scorched the strings for 25 points and 16 boards before fouling out. She helped the 'Hawks out-rebound Wood River by a large margin in the game at Twin Falls.
Wood River hosts Burley (3-11, 2-4) today, Friday on the Hailey hardwoods. Burley lost at home to Jerome (10-4, 4-2) by a 50-37 score Wednesday.
Wrestlers split duals in Filer
The Wood River High School wrestling team (3-1 duals) trav-eled to Filer Wednesday night and split a couple of dual meets—losing to Great Basin Conference foe Twin Falls 43-36 and beating Filer 54-24. And they did it despite forfeiting the 145- and 152-pound classes.
Double winners on the night were Kaleb Guisasola (103 pounds), Tyler Bartlett (112), Cooper Bailey (119), Tom Bai-ley (140) and Kasey Barker (189). Barker recorded two pins, as did Tom Bailey. Guisasola posted a pin and forfeit win, Bartlett a 19-13 decision and forfeit win, and Cooper Bailey a pin and a forfeit win.
Other Wolverine winners were Willy Dugger (pin, 215), Jared Anderson (15-10 decision, 125), Andrew Beck and Auden Ruhter (forfeit wins, 130 and 285), Kyle Clark (pin, 135) and Storm Anderson (pin, 171).
Bruins outscore WRHS boys
Defending State 4A cham-pion Twin Falls (7-2, 2-1) drilled 13 3-pointers and outscored the Wood River Wolverines (0-8, 0-2) by a 67-40 score Tuesday in Hailey. Junior Stone Sutton (17.8 ppg) led Wood River with 18 points and Luis Chavez (8 points) had a season best.
Other contributors were Quentin Dowdle 6 points, Alex Padilla 4, Mica Merritt 2 and Kevin Jensen 2.
Wood River had another tough foe in Great Basin Con-ference leader Minico (10-1, 3-0) Thursday in Rupert, then 3A Filer (5-5) visits Hailey Satur-day for a 3:30 p.m. matinee.
Butte County too much for Carey
The Carey Panthers girls' basketball team worked hard for its points Tuesday at home against 2A Butte County. But Carey is in the midst of a tough four-game stretch against de-fending State 1A Division 2 champ Richfield, Challis, Butte and Northside foe Dietrich.
Butte County (9-4), a 36-point home winner over Carey Dec. 18, had an off-night shooting but still posted a 48-24 non-conference win over the Pan-thers (6-6, 1-1 league). Butte's 6-2 sophomore post Korbin Traughber (13 points, 10 re-bounds, 3 steals, 2 assists, 3 blocks) was dominant.
The Pirates (20 steals) out-rebounded Carey 43-33 and the Panthers had 32 turnovers. Carey soph McKayla Mecham (4 points, 5 rebounds) came off the bench to do a good job in the second half.
Other contributors were Jaide Parke (8 points, 5 re-bounds, 3 steals), Micaela Ad-amson (4 points, 9 rebounds), Morgan Parke (3 points, 6 boards), Darby Northcott (3 points, 3 rebounds), Nicky Go-mez (2 points, 3 boards) and Lilly Rivera (2 steals).
Carey plays at Dietrich to-day, Friday and hosts Camas County Tuesday, Jan. 18.
Wood River junior Haillie Tay-lor had one of her best efforts Wednesday night during one of her team’s rare sub-par games. She scored 7 points with 3 boards and 2 steals in Hailey’s 40-34 road win over Canyon Ridge in Twin Falls.
Photo by David N. Seelig
