A Super Saturday for Cutthroat girls
Best season (11-6),
tournament title
Community School freshman Jenny Rutherford is short, quiet
and easy to overlook in a crowd on the basketball court.
But the red-haired 5-4 firebrand conducted herself like a
post player and led the Cutthroats to an improbable triumph Saturday in
the Northside A-4 JV tournament championship at Gooding.
Rutherford (4 steals) pulled down an amazing 14 rebounds
and scored three clutch baskets on putbacks in the overtime periods
sparking The Community School to a 45-42 double OT victory over top-seeded
Carey.
The other hero in OT was top scorer Pauli Ochi (9.7 ppg).
Playing with four personals, she calmly made 5-of-6 free
throws in the second OT, 10-for-16 overall, to finish with a season-best
16 points and clinch the upset comeback win.
Ochi scored 14 of her 16 points after intermission. Jamie
Terry (7.0 ppg) was a huge factor with 11 points, 9 rebounds and 4 blocks.
And Kristin Hickey (8.1 ppg) had 7 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks before
fouling out at the end of regulation.
Right before fouling out, captain Katie Matteson (5
assists, 3 steals) scored her only points of the game with a timely
16-footer that tied it 32-32 with 1:23 left in regulation.
Those five Cutthroats were the main contributors, but the
second JV championship in school history (1996, a 10-9 record) was truly a
team effort that also featured 5 big rebounds by Morgan LaPeter.
Not only did coach Ryan Waterfield’s Cutthroats (11-6)
finish by winning seven of their final nine, they became the winningest
team in 16 years of Community School hoops—and the school’s best-ever
defensive team (29.1 ppg).
They did it on the glass.
Out-rebounding Carey 19-6 in the first half, The Community
School built a 18-8 cushion at intermission and seemed to determined to
avenge a pair of one-point losses to Carey during the JV regular season.
Coach Greg Carlson’s Panthers fought back. Ginger
Bingham tallied 8 of her game-high 18 points in the third as Carey cut its
deficit to 25-22.
Bingham gave Carey its first lead, 26-25, with a baseliner
at the 5:30 point of the fourth quarter and the Panthers finished a 10-0
run to build a 30-25 lead with just 4:43 to play. Another Bingham bucket
made it 32-26 with three minutes left.
Then, Matteson made a fine lob pass to Terry, who scored
near the basket, and Ochi sank two important charities for a 32-30 game.
Matteson’s 16-footer tied it 32-32.
In the first four-minute OT, Bingham blocked Ochi’s
drive, but Rutherford got the rebound and put it in for a 34-32 Cutthroat
lead. Bingham responded with a 17-footer, Jesse Molyneux (16 points)
converted an inbounds play and Pamela Reay made an 18-footer for a 38-34
Carey lead with just 1:14 on the clock.
Once again, Rutherford was in the right place at the right
time, grabbing a missed shot in the paint and banking it home amidst a
forest of Panther arms and hands. Carey still led 38-36 with only 50
seconds left.
But two Panther turnovers, the second caused by some
excellent Abby Minford defense, gave the Cutthroats one more chance with
nine seconds. Bingham fouled out on Ochi’s drive to the hoop—and Ochi
somehow made both free throws.
Another OT—and more heroics by Ochi (5-for-6 at the
stripe) and Rutherford (4 rebounds in the second OT and yet another
putback). Carey’s final hope was dashed when Terry blocked a shot with
17 seconds left.
Rutherford (2.2 ppg) matched her season-high with 8 points
while, for Carey, Laren Peterson had 4 points and Lindsay Fiscus 2.
The Cutthroats won the single elimination tournament by
beating the top two teams. They earned a spot in the championship game
with a hard-fought 30-27 victory over #2-seeded Dietrich Thursday at ISDB.
Fueling the victory was an 18-point third quarter during
which the Cutthroats did just about everything right—running the offense
effectively, shooting very well and clamping down on defense.
At half-time Waterfield decided to use a different offense
and, for the first time, a 1-3-1 zone defense.
The Cutthroats went to their Western Offense featuring one
post player instead of two and a roving baseline player to free up the
inside.
It worked wonders because the Cutthroats were patient on
offense and passed well.
Trailing 14-11 at half-time, the Cutthroats startled the
Devils with a 10-0 run and kept Dietrich from scoring for nearly
five-and-a-half minutes. The zone defense kept the Devils from the getting
the ball down low and drawing fouls.
Ochi (13 points) and Terry (12 points) each scored 8
points in the third. The Cutthroats piled up an amazing 8 assists in eight
minutes by finding the open player.
Not surprisingly Dietrich made one final run in the fourth
quarter and cut the double-digit lead to 29-27 with 2:40 left. But the
Cutthroats maintained their great team defense and kept their cool.
Matteson’s free throw with 14 seconds left was the only
Cutthroat point of the final quarter, but an important one. It assured the
win.
Although she scored only 4 points including the final
Cutthroat field goal with two seconds left in the third period, Hickey
played great defense with 13 rebounds and 6 steals.
Terry added 9 rebounds. Rutherford was a big contributor
with 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Matteson added 3 rebounds and 2 assists,
Ochi 3 rebounds and 2 steals, Maddy Weisz 2 rebounds and 2 assists.
Dietrich’s Ayleen Sorensen rang up a team-high 13
points. Nikki Towne and Mandi Miller added 6 apiece for Dietrich.
In the JV tournament opener Wednesday, Carey built a 28-11
halftime cushion and breezed 50-37 over #4-seeded Shoshone.
Ginger Bingham scored 18 points, Jesse Molyneux 14, Sarah
Shaffer 6, Laren Peterson 4, Pamela Reay 4, Niki McAfee 2 and Cheyanne
Bingham 2. For Shoshone, Sarah Hubsmith led the way with 17 points and
Courtney Sorensen added 12.
