Wallace cruises in opener
NAMPA, Idaho – The Wallace High girls basketball team is on track to make another deep run in the State 1A tournament.
Kootenai, meanwhile, is on pace to make another early exit.
Fourth last year, Wallace opened Thursday where it left off a year ago, cruising past Raft River 64-50 at Skyview High School. Kootenai started fast but faded quickly in the second half as the Warriors fell 42-33 to North Gem at Nampa High School.
Second-ranked Wallace (22-1) will take on No.1-ranked Rimrock (23-1) in the quarterfinals tonight at 5:15 PST. Kootenai (17-7) will meet District II champ Kendrick (18-6) in a loser-out game at 12:15.
In other openers, defending state champ Shoshone had no problem with Genesee 49-33; Cascade topped Mackay 46-40; Richfield held off Kendrick 53-41; Garden Valley downed Oakley 47-31; Hagerman got past Greenleaf Friends 33-26; and Rimrock stopped Lapwai 60-48 in overtime.
Wallace 64, Raft River 50: The Miners had a simple game plan. They wanted to take advantage of their size inside.
The Trojans led briefly at 6-4 before Wallace scored the next 16 points, spilling over into the second quarter. The Miners did it by working the ball into the key area.
Raft River went more than a quarter without scoring before Lindsay Hutchison got a rebound basket at the 4:22 mark of the second period.
Wallace finished the first half strong, building a 30-13 lead when Shala Wild hit a 3-pointer with 1:11 to go. The Miners took a 30-15 lead into halftime.
A baseline move by junior wing Lisa Carver resulted in a basket, giving Wallace a 47-25 lead with 1 minute to go in the third quarter.
Wallace pushed its margin to 54-29 when Carver scored off a nice feed from point guard Cara Hayman with 6:10 to go in the fourth quarter.
But the Miners got a little complacent offensively, electing to take quick shots on a couple of occasions. Raft River cut the 25-point deficit to 12 at 57-45 when Nicole Harper made two free throws with 2:23 remaining.
“No patience to run an offense the second half,” Wallace coach Kirby Krulitz said. “That’s happened to us before during the season and that’s been something I tried to stress coming down here – that we have ball control (so) come down and run the offense, especially if we’ve got a 20-point lead.”
Baskets by Carver, Hayman and Staci Hinsz allowed Wallace to build its lead to 16 points in the final 2 minutes.
“I thought we played well for our first game,” Krulitz said. “We can play better. This first game is all nerves and who can survive to get to the second round and into the medal part of it.”
Wallace’s steady leaders, Carver and Hayman, led the way as usual. Carver had a game-high 21 points, 12 rebounds, three assists and two steals and Hayman chipped in 17 points, six assists, three steals and three rebounds.
“We came out pumped up and ready to play,” Hayman said. “We were just flowing good. I think our team overall feels more confident. We know what to expect.”
Carver agreed.
“We were a little nervous to start off with, but once we started playing we started to get into the flow,” Carver said.
North Gem 42, Kootenai 33: You wouldn’t know it by the final score, but the Warriors did play well for a half. They imploded in the second half, though.
Kootenai led by as many as eight points in the first half before taking a 25-21 lead into halftime. Then the Warriors came out and acted as if they had never shot, passed or dribbled the basketball.
The Warriors were held to two points in the third quarter when they committed nine turnovers, mostly unforced mistakes. Kootenai finished with eight for the final 16 minutes.
“(We had) passes right through our hands, over our heads, travels and dribbling off the feet,” bemoaned Kootenai coach Doug Napierela. “We were the better team, but they got us today.”
The poor play was contagious. Kootenai’s leading scorer, junior point guard Cassie Scheffelmaier, suffered through her worst scoring and shooting game of the season, finishing with a season-low six points on 3-of-20 shooting. Through one stretch she missed 14 straight shots.
“It’s the worst shooting game I’ve ever had,” Scheffelmaier said. “We just pretty much let up (in the second half). None of our shots were falling and our defense wasn’t the best. It was pretty depressing. You kind of just wanted to get it over.”