Two overtime games and two Jerome Tiger wins.
Wood River High School boys’ basketball players are hoping they’ll get another shot at Jerome during the Great Basin Conference tournament starting Tuesday, Feb. 18.
They came close once again Friday night in Hailey. It would have been the first Wood River boys’ hoops win in eight years over Jerome, but it wasn’t to be, thanks to a Tiger team with nine seniors.
Jerome (10-8, 5-3 league) made 9-of-16 free throws during the four-minute overtime period and nipped the host Wolverines 51-44 for their second OT win of the season over Wood River. Jerome prevailed 58-57 Jan. 27 on the Tiger hardwoods.
Junior Cody Carter (11 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals, 3 assists, 2 blocked shots) tied the tight game 40-40 by making a bank shot on a drive to the basket with 1:02 remaining. Carter then made an amazing block on a fast break chance by senior Treyson Thomas after a steal, right at the buzzer.
The Jerome zone defense continued to frustrate the Wolverines in the overtime period and the home team couldn’t get the shots it needed. Five different Tigers scored in the extra session, while Kevin Hernandez’s 3-pointer was the only Wood River noisemaker.
Senior Eron Bates (8 points, 13 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 assists) continued to play with a tremendous amount of heart for Wood River, while sophomore Alec Nordsieck (10 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 3 assists, 1 block) hung tough to the end.
Others were Connor Hayes (6 points), Hernandez (5 points, 1 block), Arthur Brugger (2 points, 2 steals, 3 assists) and Jon Scott (2 points).
For the game Wood River shot 36% from the field including 3-for-14 from 3-point range. The Wolverines just couldn’t establish the outside shot against the Tiger zone after running their offense well and finding the open man in building an 11-6 first-quarter lead.
Jerome had a tougher time succeeding with its shot selection, at 32%, but the Tigers did convert 4-for-9 from 3-point range and finished the night with 23-of-34 at the free throw line, compared to Wood River’s 5-for-16. Rebounds and turnovers were pretty even.
Top Tigers were Treyson Thomas (13 points, 3 steals), Talon Silver (10 points, two 3s) and Ethan Bragg (3 points, 7 rebounds). Junior Trever Ostler came off the bench to score all seven of his points in the third quarter when the Tigers erased a 20-17 halftime deficit.
Jerome didn’t score a field goal in the fourth quarter, compared to Wood River’s four, but made 7-of-8 at the line to force the extra period.
Wood River (3-15, 2-7 league) will try to win its third conference game when the Canyon Ridge Riverhawks (1-17, 0-9) visit Hailey today, Wednesday. The Wolverines won 58-43 at Canyon Ridge on Jan. 24.
Coach Andy Miles’ Hailey boys will be the fifth seed in the Great Basin tournament next week and will travel to No. 4 Minico (5-12, 3-6) for the rubber match in the three-game series between the two teams on Tuesday, Feb. 18.
Top seed will be Twin Falls (15-3, 9-0), winner of 13 consecutive games, while Burley (14-4, 7-2) and Jerome will battle it out for the second seed in their final conference games today, Wednesday.
Wood River finishes its home regular season slate Friday, Feb. 14 with non-conference “Senior Night” games against the Gooding Senators on the Hailey floor. Host Gooding won the first clash 63-62 in overtime Dec. 10.
Girls end season in tourney
The No. 6-seeded Wood River Wolverine girls’ varsity basketball team (6-14) ended its 2013-14 season last Thursday with a 42-34 loss to No. 5 Canyon Ridge (6-17) in a loser-out game of the six-team Great Basin Conference tournament, played in Twin Falls.
Junior guard Ciceley Peavey (3 assists, 2 steals, one 3-pointer) scored a season-best 16 points in the loss. Top scorer Rory Cole, a junior, added eight points and six boards. No other Wolverines scored more than two points as the visitors shot 1-for-10 from the 3-point line.
Canyon Ridge bowed out of the tournament Saturday with a 43-24 loss at Minico. Then No. 3-seeded Jerome (17-6) eliminated Minico (9-15) by a 34-29 score in overtime Monday. Jerome traveled to No. 2-seeded Burley (14-8) Tuesday in a loser-out game.
Top-seeded Twin Falls (20-2) captured its 18th consecutive win Saturday with a 61-43 home victory over defending league champ Burley and earned the conference’s first berth in the State 4A tourney Feb. 20 in Meridian.
Assistant coach J.C. Nemecek said the Hailey girls were inconsistent in their play in the second quarter at Canyon Ridge and fell behind 20-11 at halftime. The Wolverines rallied in their 16-point third quarter and tied the game 27-27. But foul problems and shot selection were problems as the game wound down, he said.
Statistics follow:
Overall record: Wood River 6-14 (3-6 home, 3-8 away, 0-10 league). Offense: 594 points (29.7 ppg). Defense: 741 points (37.1 ppg). Individual scoring: Rory Cole 151 points (7.6 ppg), Ciceley Peavey 139 (7.7), Blair Radford 94 (4.7), Kenya Schott 75 (3.8), Michelle Mason 43 points, Giselle Andrade 26, Samantha Sutton 22, Manuela Cortina-Otero 20, Haylee Pettit 16, Tess Hollister 6, Sara Lichtenberg 2. 3-pointers (38): Peavey 16, Radford 11, Schott 6, Mason 5. Free throws: Wood River 112-257, 43%; opposition 184-327, 56%.
