For the week of December 5 - 11, 2001

Cutthroats, shy two, still push Hansen to limit

Boys open cage season

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Judging by the smiles on the faces of Mike Wade’s players and The Community School home fans, you’d have thought the Cutthroats won Friday’s 2001-02 home boys’ basketball debut against Hansen.

They didn’t, but they won the People’s Choice award for effort and resourcefulness.

That’s because the Cutthroats ended up playing with only four players for the final three minutes—and just three for the final 48 seconds.

Hansen (1-0) outpointed coach Wade’s fiesty squad 14-8 in the fourth and prevailed 56-50 chiefly because five Cutthroats fouled out in the last six minutes. The Huskies outscored the Cutthroats 23-4 at the free throw line.

"Wasn’t that fun!" said Wade with sincerity after the game.

He alluded not to the final score or his team’s personal foul problems, but to the way his remaining players rose to the challenge and actually drew to within four points with a minute remaining.

Over 18 years of building a basketball program, playing shorthanded has become something of a tradition at The Community School. Wade said, "It used to be we’d be in that situation so often that we’d practice the 2-1-1 zone defense."

It’s too bad Cutthroats started dropping like flies, because Hansen and The Community School battled tooth-and-claw and were tied 42-42 after three periods.

"We had decent rebounding and did a better job running our offense," Wade said.

Finding the open man, the Cutthroats amassed 22 field goals to Hansen’s 16, and had 15 assists led by Zac Koffler (4) and John Hayes (4). Hansen out-rebounded the Cutthroats 34-28. Koffler led the way with 8 boards and 4 blocked shots.

The Cutthroats, despite trailing by 10 in the first, constantly fought back. Adrian Charbonnet tallied 10 of his team-high 12 points in the first half and Jimmy Fairchild added 8 points, 3 boards and 3 steals before leaving with a gimpy knee in the fourth.

Although he scored only 2 points, senior Josh Stanek fueled the relentless Cutthroat rallies with 4 rebounds, 5 steals and 4 assists. He played excellent defense on Hansen’s best player, senior Miguel Dos Santos(a game-high 18 points).

"I was pleased with our defensive play, especially Josh Stanek in the first half when his strong defense shook up Dos Santos," said Wade.

The Cutthroats passed up the outside shot and hammered it inside until disappearing players forced them to shoot from the perimeter. Ryan Drew (10 points, 4 rebounds) made two 3-pointers and narrowly missed a few more.

Other Cutthroat scorers were Hayes 8 points, Ethan Weston 4 points and 3 boards, and Bret Watson 2 points. For Hansen, 6-1 senior Paul Stanger had 17 points and 5 assists, and Cody Fowers added 8 rebounds.

Thursday night, host Murtaugh outscored the Cutthroats 28-6 in the first quarter and rolled to a 71-45 non-conference win. Charbonnet had 11 points, Drew 10 including a 3-pointer, Fairchild 8, Watson 7, Stanek 5, Koffler 2 and Hayes 2.

Summing up the first two games, Wade said, "We’ve played eight quarters, and seven were decent quarters." The Cutthroats host Shoshone Thursday, Dec. 6 and Camas County on Friday, Dec. 7.

 

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