Maniacs beat CVHS to stay alive at districts

by Mike Butler

The Orofino High School Maniac Basketball Team is still alive in the District 2A Tournament with their win over the Clearwater Valley High School Rams Saturday night. This was a loser out game.

First half action showed that it was anyone's ballgame. The Rams were tough on defense and that enabled them to hit those three point shots. Ben Hosley for the Orofino Maniacs led the charge for his team as he was able to work the ball in and score points. Wayde Garland their usual high point man was kept quiet Friday. Hosley had help from teammate DJ Wright who eventually became the high scorer of the night.

During the second quarter, the Maniacs got a little sloppy with the ball and CVHS took advantage of it by stealing the ball. Twice the Rams were able to tie up the score during the second period. Even so Orofino led the Rams by 4 points at half with the score of Orofino 19 CVHS 15.

Second half of the game was entirely different from the first half. The Maniacs climbed aboard the train and just railroaded the Rams through the second half. CVHS was no match for both Orofino's offense and defense. The Rams coach kept alternating players to see if anyone on his team could slow the Maniacs down. At the end of the third quarter Wright hit a three pointer at the buzzer. Final for this one was Orofino 46 CVHS 28.

Wright was the top scorer of the game with 16, Ben Hosley helped out with 13. Jarrod Mangum had 7 rebounds with 4 assists.

The next game of the tournament for the Maniacs is Wednesday night at 6 p.m. at Booth Hall at Lewiston High School. They will be playing the Grangeville Bulldogs who lost to Kamiah Saturday night but not without a fight. The first three quarters saw the Bulldogs challenging the Kamiah Kubs keeping themselves in contention. The Kubs got into foul trouble early on as the officials were calling a tight game. It was not until the fourth quarter that Kamiah settled down into their rhythm and beat the Grangeville Bulldogs. Orofino is going to have to play their best Wednesday night since it looks like it will be a tough match.

Photos: Top--Brad Popoff goes up for two. Second--Ben Hosley has one in the basket. Third--DJ Wright gets fouled as he tries to shoot for the basket.