For the week of November 14 - 20, 2001

Carey girls head into new cage season

Will host Northside tourney in 2002

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Under first-year head coach Greg Carlson, the Carey School girls’ varsity basketball team will be looking to surprise some people in the tough Northside Conference battles.

Carey’s 18-game regular-season campaign opened Tuesday night with home games against Hansen. The Panthers have seven of their 10 home games before Christmas break.

Speed means a lot in basketball, especially when you don’t have a lot of height. That’s exactly the situation Carey is facing with a new group that needs to learn how to score.

"The girls are extremely fast and are pretty good shooters," said Carlson, who coached the Panther junior varsity to second place in the Northside JV tourney last winter.

Carey lost a lot. The Panthers graduated Jesse Rathke (11.9 ppg), Megan Peterson, Dawn Simmons and Erika Shaffer. Together they supplied nearly 80% of the Carey points.

New coach Carlson takes over a Carey varsity that went 8-13 last winter and missed qualifying for the state tourney with a 42-27 loss to Hagerman.

But the Panthers lacked consistency, winning two games in a row only once. And they lost to Dietrich four times, including twice in the Northside Sub-District meet at ISDB.

Next January, the Northside tourney will be held on the Carey hardwoods.

Five seniors return from last year’s varsity squad.

They are point guard Julie Royal (4.1 ppg), point guard/wing Amy Rivera, wing Karen Patterson, wing Annette Peck and wing Terra Hansen.

Juniors provide most of the height with low posts Ginger Bingham, Jesse Molyneux, Laren Peterson and Pamela Reay plus wing Lindsay Fiscus.

A sophomore, 6-0 Sarah Lynn Shaffer, could also help out later in the season.

Bingham and Molyneux were the big Carey scorers during the JV tournament, which featured a 50-37 win over Shoshone and a thrilling 45-42 overtime loss to The Community School in the finale.

"Ginger and Jesse work well together down low," said Carlson. "And we have outside shooters in Julie Royal and Laren Peterson."

Carey, always seeking to improve its outside shooting, will run a flex offense relying on low post play. The team speed will dictate its defensive strategy, mostly man-to-man with some pressing action.

Figure Shoshone (26-1 in 2001, fourth place in state) and Dietrich (20-8, state consolation champ) to dominate the Northside, as they’ve done since 1988.

But Camas County and The Community School should also provide a challenge in the six-team Northside Conference varsity league, Carlson said.

Carey’s new junior varsity coach is Amy Bovey.

 

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