Wednesday — February 25, 2004

Cutthroats make state, 57-35 over Tigers

Hayes (18 points) leads the way

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They’ve been disappointed before in their attempts to make state, so Community School boys’ varsity basketball players weren’t about to take any chances with last Tuesday’s Northside 1A Sub-District tournament game against Richfield, down in Shoshone.

Led by senior captain John Hayes (18 points, 4 assists), the #2-seeded Cutthroats trounced the #6-seeded Richfield Tigers 57-35 to earn only the second State 1A tournament berth in school history. Coach Mike Wade, who also guided the 1998 Cutthroats to state, was pleased for his players.

Luc McCann goes hard inside against Dietrich during the Northside tournament. Express photo by David N. Seelig

Wade said, "These seniors—before tonight they’ve played four games to go to state, two as sophomores and two as juniors, and they’ve lost all four. Before the game I said to them, we’re 0-4 in these games, it’s time to win one. Let’s go out and win it.

"And they did."

Not only did the Cutthroats (19-4 overall, 60.4 ppg) win their third straight game and 15th of 17, their 4-1 second-place back-door finish in the seven-team Northside meet gave them an automatic berth in the 16-team State 1A tourney March 3 at Caldwell.

And they rose in the Idahosports-com 1A boys’ poll, moving up to sixth place behind top-ranked Carey (19-1), Council (17-2), Raft River (19-1), Mackay (16-4) and Notus (17-3).

The Cutthroats did it the hard way, playing four games in five nights including their 42-41 loss to the same Richfield squad Thursday in the Northside Sub-District opening game.

Wade said, "We shot 31% in that first game against Richfield and had to build back every game from there. It worked out well for us in the loser bracket. Such a thing toughens a team. And we got a couple of extra games.

The other big thing about Tuesday’s win over Richfield was The Community School’s 37-23 rebounding advantage. Wade said, "When we lost to Richfield, they out-rebounded us. Defensively we wanted to make sure that didn’t happen again."

The Community School offensive strategy Tuesday was to let do-everything Luc McCann do the ballhandling in order to free up leading scorer Hayes (17.3 ppg) for his shots.

"John has received plenty of special attention with box-on-one defenses, so we wanted to get him loose with screens and back-door cuts. He’s been working hard on taking and making his shots under pressure," said Wade.

Hayes and fellow senior McCann (8 points, 8 boards, 3 assists) scored 6 points apiece in the first as the Cutthroats built an 18-8 lead and got two of Richfield’s threats into foul trouble—ballhawking guard Victor Vacquez and defensive specialist Harlie Amy.

The lead grew to 16 twice in the second quarter, including on the final play when Dylan McIlhenny made an incredible 3-point bank at the buzzer from just inside the midcourt line. Unfortunately McIlhenny hurt his ankle making his 13th 3-pointer of the season and is lost indefinitely.

"Dylan’s ankle was swollen up immediately," said Wade.

McIlhenny’s loss would be a big one for the Cutthroats, since he is a defensive specialist, runs the fast break expertly with Hayes and routinely contributes all over the floor.

But the Cutthroats have plenty of depth. Andrew Durtschi stepped in for McIlhenny in the second half and finished with a team-high 12 rebounds. In all, nine Cutthroats scored points in the 22-point blowout.

"We have guys coming off the bench who do a good job for us," said Wade, the only varsity coach The Community School program has had.

The Cutthroats will rest up and play one more game for state seeding at Murtaugh Thursday, Feb. 26.

CSchool 57-35 over Richfield: John Hayes 18 points, Dylan McIlhenny 9, Jimmy Fairchild 8, Luc McCann 8, Connor Wade 4, A.J. Beesley 4, Andrew Durtschi 2, Hunter Smith 2, Logan Koffler 2. Rebounds (37)—Durtschi 12, McCann 8, Koffler 5, Fairchild 4. Blocked shots—Fairchild 2, Durtschi 1, Wade 1, Hayes 1, McCann 1. Assists—Hayes 4, McCann 3, McIlhenny 2, Durtschi 2. Steals—Hayes 2, Wade 2. 3-pointers—Hayes 2, McCann 2, McIlhenny 1. FT—10-17. Opp FT—6-16.

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