Led by seniors Jaide Parke and Morgan Parke, the Carey School girls’ varsity basketball team will head into the eight-team Northside Conference tournament with a first-round home game Saturday, Feb. 2.
Carey’s league game at Richfield Tuesday finalized the regular season slate and the seedings for the upcoming Northside meet, but coach Merrilee Sears’ Panthers (11-6, 5-1 league) have earned their home tourney game by finishing among the top four teams.
Game time is 7 p.m. Saturday on the Carey hardwoods.
The favored Dietrich Blue Devils (18-0, 5-0 league) won at home over Richfield (12-5, 4-1) by a 43-30 score Saturday and improved their three-season winning streak to 46 games.
After another round of games at the home of higher seeded teams Monday, Feb. 4, the double elimination tourney moves to Gooding High School for further games Feb. 5-7.
The top two teams automatically qualify for the State 1A Division 2 tournament Feb. 14 at Nampa High School, while the third-place team must win a Feb. 9 state play-in game at American Falls to advance to state.
Besides Carey’s attempt to make state, another thing to watch is Jaide Parke’s pursuit of the school’s career scoring record of 1,168 points held by her older sister Jessica. Jaide currently has 1,114 points including 11 in Carey’s 40-19 home league win over Bliss on Thursday’s “Senior Night.”
Hailey girls down Buhl 49-37 on “Senior Night”
On the verge of its league tournament, the Wood River High School girls’ varsity basketball team put together its best offensive performance of the season Thursday in a 49-37 “Senior Night” win over Buhl.
Senior Hannah Belloli (5.5 ppg) was on fire from the perimeter with five 3-pointers and a career-best 17 points plus 6 rebounds, 4 steals, 2 assists and 1 blocked shot as Wood River (28.3 ppg offense) won at home for the first time.
Another Wolverine senior, leading scorer Sydney Tidwell (10.0 ppg) tallied 12 of her 17 points in the second half and finished with 8 boards and 3 blocks. The third senior, Kennedie Howard, enjoyed one of her best nights with 4 points and 3 assists.
Belloli scored 8 points in the second quarter and sophomore post Rory Cole (4 points) pulled down 5 of her game-high 15 rebounds in the second as Wood River (only 11 turnovers) built its biggest halftime lead, 22-14. The Wolverines dominated the glass, out-boarding Buhl 36-19.
The victory for coach Matt Newhouse’s Wolverines (3-15, 1-9 league) snapped a three-game losing skid and swept the season series with Buhl.
Other contributors were Ciceley Peavey 7 points, 3 boards, 3 steals and 4 assists; Sammi Sutton 2 rebounds, 2 steals, 3 assists and 2 blocks; Giselle Andrade 2 rebounds; and Brittney Bradley 2 assists. Topping Buhl were Kennedy Bowman 11 points/4 rebounds, and Natalie Morse 9 points.
The six-team GBC league tournament opened Tuesday with No. 6 seed Wood River traveling to No. 3 Minico (8-12, 5-5) and No. 4 Jerome (11-9, 5-5) hosting No. 5 Canyon Ridge (3-17, 1-9). If the seeds held up, the Wolverines with a Tuesday loss would visit Canyon Ridge in Twin Falls Thursday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. in a loser-out game of the double elimination meet.
Oakley downs Carey boys
The host Oakley Hornets (5-9) broke open a close game with a 19-7 fourth-quarter surge and pulled off a rare win over the Carey School boys’ varsity basketball team Friday—snapping Carey’s seven-game winning streak. It was Oakley’s first win over Carey since 2004.
Gerrit Wybenga and Myck Sagers led Oakley with 14 and 11 points respectively. Carey, averaging 39% field shooting for the season, shot 31% and was out-rebounded 31-25. Leading Carey scorer Nate Adamson (14 points, 3 assists, 4 steals) ended up fouling out.
Other Carey contributors at Oakley included Joe Parke (7 points, 4 rebounds), Jordan Dilworth (6 points, 3 boards, 4 assists), Sheldon Hansen (6 points, 6 rebounds) and Matt Whitworth (5 points).
Thursday night, the Carey boys (11-6, 6-0 league) stayed unbeaten in the Northside Conference with a 65-27 home win over Bliss. Nine different Panthers scored as Carey shot 44% from the field and out-rebounded the Bears 29-14.
Contributors were Dilworth (14 points, 7 rebounds), Hansen (11 points), Whitworth (11 points, 5 boards), Parke (8 points, 3 rebounds), Adamson (7 points, 3 assists, 2 steals), Poncho Gamino (5 points, 4 boards), Gunner Thompson (5 points, 3 rebounds), Luis Garcia (2 points, 3 steals) and Glen Andrews (2 points, 3 rebounds).
The Panthers visit Hagerman Saturday, Feb. 2 for a 1:30 p.m. varsity tip-off.
WRHS to honor Boatwright in Feb. 6 finale
Wood River High will honor retired teacher and boys’ basketball coach Jim Boatwright during “Senior Night” for the Wolverine boys’ basketball team Wednesday, Feb. 6 in games against the Minico Spartans at the Hailey gym.
Boatwright graduated from Rupert’s Minico High School in 1970, where he lettered in basketball, track and golf. He led the Spartans to back-to-back state basketball championship games in 1969 and 1970. As a junior, he averaged 37 points per game during the state meet. He still ranks among the top Minico all-time scorers.
Having earned a slew of All-State and All-American honors, Boatwright received a scholarship to play at Utah State University. He was the top scorer both his junior and senior seasons at Logan and was named Utah State's top athlete in 1974.
Boatwright joined the European Professional Basketball League and played eight years for Maccabi Tel Aviv, Israel. Maccabi won the European Championship in 1977 and Boatwright was the team's leading scorer. He was selected as a member of the Israeli Olympic basketball team for the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
For the last nine years, Boatwright has conducted his Snowline Summer Basketball Camp in Hailey. He was assistant boys’ basketball coach to Fred Trenkle at Wood River for three seasons from 2003-06.
Boatwright will be honored at halftime of next Wednesday’s boys’ basketball game. The Wolverine senior boys’ basketball players and cheerleaders and their parents will be saluted before the game.
Meanwhile, coach Andy Miles’ Wolverines (5-10, 1-6 league) will try to bounce back from back-to-back home losses to Burley and Twin Falls (12-4, 7-0) when they travel to Jerome (9-5, 3-3) today, Wednesday, Jan. 30. The Wolverines go to Canyon Ridge (0-16, 0-6) Friday.
Eron Bates (10 points), Kevin Hernandez (9) and Cody Carter (8, two 3-pointers) led Wood River in its 62-37 home loss to Twin Falls Friday.
Carey senior Francisco Poncho Gamino lines up a free throw during Thursday’s 65-27 Pan-ther home win over the Bliss Bears on the Carey hardwoods. Photo by Roland Lane
