For the week of January 23 - 29, 2002

17 years of futility end with 55-54 Hailey win

Wood River beats Buhl 55-54

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Almost a generation of lopsided losses—17 years and 50 straight games—came to a screeching halt Thursday night as the Wood River High School girls’ varsity basketball team rallied past visiting Buhl 55-54.

Trailing by nine points late in the third quarter, Wood River stepped up its rebounding and defense and outscored the Tribe 16-6 in the final nine minutes to clinch the important Sawtooth Central Idaho Conference victory.

Wood River’s last win over Buhl was exactly 17 years ago on the same floor, a 45-42 overtime victory Jan. 17, 1985. Since, Buhl had beaten Wood River teams 50 straight times by an average margin of 20 ppg.

It was a different story Thursday as Wood River (12-6, 6-3 league) squared the season series with Buhl (13-4, 8-1) and avenged a 41-40 loss at Buhl Dec. 4. The outcome provided Wood River with its first three-game winning streak this year.

"We knew we could beat a good team like Declo, Buhl or Valley. It was really important to actually come out and beat one of them," said Wood River coach Brent Carnduff.

Leading the way were top scorer senior Laurel Williams (13 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals, 3 assists) and sophomore Natalie Green (12 points, 5 boards, 3 assists). But it was truly a team effort down the homestretch.

After a high-scoring, wide-open, back-and-forth first half that ended with Buhl ahead 36-34, the Tribe started hitting its outside shots and pulled ahead 48-39 with one minute left in the third—despite having sophomore post Brandi Hosman on the bench with four personal fouls.

Defense and several big baskets turned things around. Carnduff said, "We spent a lot of time at half-time on the idea of shutting down their big girls and having Buhl beat us from the outside."

Green ignited the Hailey comeback with a little jump hook and sophomore Emily Smith rebounded a Williams 3-point miss for an important basket in the closing seconds cutting Buhl’s lead to 48-43.

Williams sank her third 3-pointer of the game on a pass from Kelly Haisley (4 rebounds, 4 assists) early in the fourth, then Jessica King (6 points, 3 boards) hit a 13-footer, from Green, for a 48-48 tie at 7:02.

Sophomore reserve Liz Rippon did her part, making a transition bucket on a Williams’ outlet pass then senior Tara Rushton (9 points, 5 rebounds) cashed in on a putback for a 52-50 Hailey lead. Buhl tied it, then Rushton sank a free throw, 53-52.

The last four minutes was just great Wood River defense—Smith putting plenty of pressure on the perimeter and Green sealing off Buhl junior post Sherry King down low. King (16 points) scored 12 points in the first half, but none in the fourth quarter.

"We tightened things down a little," Carnduff said. "Our perimeter defense was really moving well and we worked better on the boards. Our back row did a good job of boxing out and fronting their posts."

Green’s bank shot, on a pass from Smith (4 points, 2 boards, 2 steals, 2 assists), put Hailey ahead for good 55-52. Wood River out-rebounded Buhl 11-4 in the decisive fourth quarter, and 29-26 for the game.

"Natalie played great. And Emily, who is so fast and matches up size-wise with any guard in the league, has really earned more minutes this season," said Carnduff.

Senior post Kristine Hilt added 7 points and 5 rebounds and stayed in the game until the end, despite picking up her fourth foul with 11 minutes remaining in the game.

With the dramatic win, Wood River nailed down the third seed in next week’s six-team SCIC tourney and assured itself a first-round home game Monday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. in Hailey against the #4-seeded Kimberly Bulldogs (7-11, 4-5).

It would have been nice to add another upset victory Saturday during a make-up SCIC game at Declo.

But the defending SCIC champion Hornets (18-1, 8-1 league) pressed effectively and whipped the Wolverines 47-32 with a 28-11 advantage in the middle quarters.

Williams scored 11 points and passed Rebecca Torresdal for second place on the all-time WR scoring list.

Declo played at Buhl Tuesday to determine the top seed in next week’s tourney. Wood River wraps up its regular-season schedule at Kimberly Thursday.

The Bulldogs, Wood River’s first-round foe, are hurting, having lost junior Rachel Bulcher to a knee injury. Bulcher scored 15 points in a 58-42 Kimberly loss in Hailey Jan 3. Without her, Kimberly lost by 30 at Declo Thursday.

Last Tuesday, Williams scored 21 points including four 3-pointers and Rushton (5.3 ppg) drilled a season-best 12 points as Wood River routed Filer 59-37 on the Hailey hardwoods.

Hilt (10.1 ppg) chipped in 8 points, Green 6, Haisley 6, King 4 and B.J. Adams 2 for Wood River. Filer (3-16, 1-8) would have wrapped up the #5 seed with a home win over Gooding (2-16, 0-9) on Thursday night.

 

Williams sights record

Senior Laurel Williams has a good chance to become Wood River’s all-time leading scorer this week.

Four-year varsity player Williams has 632 points, just 7 points off the school career standard of 639 established by Tara Pyle in 1995.

This season will be the third in which Williams has led Wood River in scoring. She has a chance to become her school’s first athlete to earn three varsity letters four straight years.

Laurel’s three 3-pointers at Declo Saturday broke her own single-season 3-pointer record. Williams now has 30 3s this season, 64 career.

Meanwhile, Wood River (12-6) is targeting the school record of 14 wins set in 2000.

It’s almost certain the Wolverines will break the school scoring record of 989 points (41.2 ppg) set in its 14-10 season of 2000. Wood River now has 879 (48.8 ppg).

 

Wolverine notes

Here’s the back story of Wood River’s last win over Buhl 17 years ago.

Coach Patrick Shannon was in his final year as Hailey coach, and Buhl came to Hailey with a 15-4 record and 13-game winning streak that included a 35-point victory over Wood River on the Tribe floor.

But Wood River senior guard Jennifer Copeland (11 points) tied it 34-34 with a 3-pointer as regulation time expired, then Copeland added four free throws in overtime and Marianne Moore (14 points) scored two baskets for the 45-42 win. Cindy Glauche added 13 points for Hailey.

It was the season highlight, as Wood River finished with a 3-16 log.

Since, the subsequent futility has included a string of 98 consecutive league losses from 1985-1999, but Wood River has righted ship in SCIC play and is 19-20 the past four years plus two straight third-place finishes in the season-ending SCIC tourney.

Wood River is 9-73 in 82 games against Buhl from 1976-2002.

 

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