It was a busy week on the hardwoods and on the mat for Blaine County athletes—with the girls' basketball tournaments quickly approaching.
Hailey girls rip Minico 57-42
With senior point guard Kaitana Martinez directing traffic and targeting her passes with precision, the Wood River High School girls' varsity basketball team hammered the Minico Spartans 57-42 Friday night on the Hailey hardwoods.
Martinez (14 points, 6 steals, 8 assists) played over 30 minutes of the 32-minute game and helped the Wolverines (39.5 ppg) to a season-high point total. Eight different Hailey players scored points, the first time that's happened this season.
Wood River hammered the ball inside to its senior posts Haylee Thompson (15 points, 6 rebounds) and Cheyenne Swanson (8 points, 8 boards), while Minico mainly relied on perimeter offense led by hot-shooting senior Marlee Chandler (a game-high 25 points).
The Wolverine dominance in the paint showed up in a 28-18 rebounding advantage and also at the free throw line, where the Hailey girls (a season-best 19-for-27) outscored the Spartans 19-8. With Martinez handling the ball the Wolverines made only 10 turnovers.
Other contributors were Haillie Taylor (6 points, 3 rebounds), Rory Cole (4 points, 3 boards, 1 block), Cookie Benson (4 points), Emmalie Dion (4 points), Hannah Belloli (2 points, 4 boards) and Ciceley Peavey (2 rebounds, 1 assist).
Wood River ended Minico's seven-game winning streak.
The Great Basin Conference victory avenged a nine-point loss at Minico during December and put coach Kevin Stilling's Wolverines in position to move into fourth place in the six-team GBC and earn a first-round home game in the league tournament starting Jan. 31.
Wood River (7-9, 4-5 league) visited Jerome (13-4, 6-3) Tuesday night. Next, the Wolverines stage their Senior Night for a remarkable class of seven seniors on Thursday, Jan. 26 at home against the Buhl Tribe.
The Wolverines needed a win over Jerome Tuesday and a loss by Burley (9-9, 4-5) on Tuesday at Minico (12-6, 6-3) to gain the fourth seed and a tournament home game against No. 5 Burley on Tuesday, Jan. 31. Jerome nipped Wood River in Hailey 40-31 Jan. 5.
In another league game, league-leading Twin Falls (12-6, 7-2) hosted Canyon Ridge (4-15, 0-9), also on Tuesday night.
Top scorer leaves WRHS boys
Wood River boys' basketball coach Rick Bradshaw confirmed Monday that senior Stone Sutton, the program's leading scorer for three straight seasons, quit the team last week after being sidelined by sickness for two games.
Sutton scored 562 points (10.2 ppg) in 55 games since his freshman year. He was Wood River's top scorer at 11.7 ppg through 10 games this season, but didn't take the court in a 61-39 road loss at Filer Jan. 14 and 61-53 home loss to Kimberly Jan. 17. Sutton is now playing in the Blaine County Recreation District men's league.
Friday, the host Burley Bobcats (8-4, 3-2 league) routed Wood River 85-27. Braxton Parish (10 points) and Austin Hafer (8) led the Wolverines (2-11, 0-5), who have dropped six straight.
Wood River entertains Jerome (12-2, 4-1) today, Wednesday in another Great Basin Conference game on the Hailey hardwoods and visits league-leading Twin Falls (13-1, 5-0) on Friday, Jan. 27. Minico (3-11, 1-4) hosts Burley today and Canyon Ridge (4-10, 2-3) goes across town to Twin Falls.
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Carey, Camas clash on the hardwoods
Senior Chance Chavez was scalding hot from behind the circle Friday in Carey High School's 74-55 boys' varsity basketball home triumph over the Camas County Mushers.
Chavez (9.6 ppg) burned the strings for a season-best 24 points including 6-for-12 in 3-point shooting as the Panthers put together three straight 20-point efforts in the second, third and fourth quarters.
He also helped out with a team-high 7 assists and shared the scoring spotlight with fellow seniors Baley Barg (16 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals) and Dillon Cenarrusa (16 points, 13 boards).
Coach Dick Simpson's Panthers (7-6, 3-0 league) went over the .500 mark for the first time all season and stayed unbeaten in Northside Conference action. The fifth consecutive Carey victory also marked a season-best in scoring.
The Mushers (4-8, 1-1 league) also had a hot shooting night, hitting 44% from the field and taking a 17-11 first-quarter lead before Carey heated up. But turnovers (22) and 16 Carey steals hampered the Camas cause. Jordan Robles (26 points) and Andy Simon (14) led the way for Fairfield's boys.
Other Carey contributors in leveling the Panther home record at 4-4 included Patrick Baird (6 points, 3 rebounds), Jordan Dilworth (5 points, 3 assists, 5 steals), Charlie Rivera (2 assists, 4 steals) and Sheldon Hansen (4 points).
Carey embarked on a four-game road trip starting Tuesday at Murtaugh (7-6, 1-1). The Panthers visit Bliss Thursday, Jan. 26 and Oakley on Friday.
CHS girls outscore Camas
Carey's top three scorers—junior Jaide Parke (12.3 ppg), senior Micaela Adamson (12.7 ppg) and junior Morgan Parke (7.1 ppg)—came up big in the 60-46 Panther home league victory over the Camas County Mushers on Friday night.
Adamson matched her season high with 19 points, Jaide Parke added 18 and Morgan Parke 14. They helped Carey build a 25-16 halftime lead which the Panthers stretched by scoring in double digits in each and every quarter.
Nicole Gomez (4 points), Angelica Zarate (3) and Darby Northcott (2) aided the cause.
Carey (7-5, 3-2 league) bounced back from a 41-33 road loss at Hagerman on Thursday night. Katelyn Peterson (15) and Stephanie Moore (12) topped Camas (9-5, 2-2). At Hagerman, the Panthers were outscored 19-7 at the free throw line with Jaide Parke (9) and Adamson (9) leading the attack.
The Carey game at Richfield Tuesday, Jan. 31 won't count in league standings. The Northside tournament begins Saturday, Feb. 4 in Murtaugh.
Wrestlers grapple at Tiger-Grizz tourney
Wood River High School wrestlers joined matmen from four states and 37 schools Friday and Saturday for the Tiger-Grizz Invitational at Skyline High School in Idaho Falls.
Coach Shawn Huntington said, "At the varsity tournament we had a couple strong performances. Storm Anderson (170 pounds) and Thomas Heiden (182) wrestled well and each came within one match from placing.
"Cooper Bailey (120) took second place and Tim Boyle (113) placed sixth at the varsity second-chance tournament." Box Elder (Utah) won the team title 242.5 to 217.5 over Idaho 4A king Columbia of Nampa.
At the Tiger-Grizz junior varsity tournament Wood River had three top-four placers including 285-pound champion Chris Carnes. Other Wolverines were Andrew Beck (120) who placed fourth and Jeremiah Linderman (220) who finished third.
Cutthroat boys nip Tigers 32-31
Community School senior Will Brokaw (22.0 ppg) continued his solid scoring with a game-high 15 points and added 5 rebounds Monday night leading the Cutthroats to a close 32-31 Northside Conference road win over the Richfield Tigers.
Soph Taylor Adler (9 points), senior Henry Rickbeil (7 points, 16 rebounds) and Doug DuFur also scored for the winners in the nip-and-tuck battle. It was the fourth road win of the season for coach Erik Olson's Cutthroats (6-6, 2-1 league).
Adler's drive and floating shot provided the winning points with three seconds left.
Meanwhile, the Cutthroat girls (0-10, 0-5 league) ran into a tough bunch in last year's State 1A Division 2 runner-up Richfield (12-3, 4-0) and dropped a 58-8 road decision Monday. Taylor Figge scored 6 points and Chloe Chrysikopoulos 2.
Cutthroat teams host the Murtaugh Red Devils Thursday, Jan. 26 at The Fish Tank. The Northside road games at Castleford, postponed by bad weather last Thursday, have been rescheduled for Monday, Jan. 30—the varsity girls at 4:30 p.m., JV boys at 6 p.m. and varsity boys at 7:30 p.m.
