Playing one of its best games of the season, the Wood River High School boys' basketball team hung tough with the Kimberly Bulldogs for three quarters Tuesday before run-ning out of steam in a 59-42 non-league road loss to the 'Dogs.
Seven Wolverines topped by juniors Stone Sutton (12 points) and Mica Merritt (a season-best 11) battled a good Kimberly team point-for-point and car-ried a 36-35 lead into the fourth. But the Bulldogs (9-2) outscored Hailey 23-6 in the fourth.
Jade Wadsworth tallied a game-high 18 points for Kim-berly. Other Wolverines were Alex Padilla 6 points, Quentin Dowdle 5, Ben Williams 4, Kevin Jensen 2 and Luis Chavez 2. Wood River (0-11, 0-3 league) hosts Burley (1-11, 0-4) today, Friday and goes to Can-yon Ridge (5-7, 1-2) Monday.
In other Great Basin Confer-ence action Wednesday, Twin Falls (10-2, 3-1) won 62-61 in overtime at Pocatello, Jerome (9-4, 3-1) defeated visiting Kim-berly 65-29 and Preston beat host Burley 50-48.
Meanwhile, Minico's Spar-tans have a good system for handling the Wood River Wol-verine girls' basketball team.
The Spartans (6-10, 3-5) kept top Hailey scorer Kaitana Martinez from doing much damage from the field and up-set Wood River (13-2, 6-2) by a 46-44 score Tuesday night in Rupert. Martinez shot 3-for-14 from the field and 11-for-12 at the free throw line for a game-high 17 points, but Minico re-ceived scoring from eight play-ers to hold off Wood River's fourth quarter rally.
The result snapped Wood River's five-game win streak going into Thursday's Wolver-ine-Jerome game in Hailey and Tuesday's Wood River visit to league-leading Twin Falls.
Senior guard Taylor Hayes (10 points) matched Martinez in double figures. Other Hailey scorers were Haylee Thompson 5 points, Allie Hesteness 4, Cheyenne Swanson 4, Haillie Taylor 2 and Hunter Thompson 2. Topping Minico was Marlee Chandler with 16 points.