Glenns Ferry basketball: season recap

In April, I visited Glenns Ferry and interviewed coach Kelli McHone and several players following their impressive 2011-12 season. Here is the article recapping the year that will appear in their team's basketball yearbook.

Are these the ‘glory days’?

Led by Karli McHone, Pilots have another great year,
but this time reach the elusive state tournament

By Bruce Smith

Matchup

             The Glenns Ferry girls basketball team may be realizing its “glory days.”

            Last year, under coach Rick Hance, the Pilots started the season with an eight-game winning streak en route to a 16-8 record.
            This season, Kelli McHone took over and guided the team to a 16-12 mark. While that may not seem as impressive as the year before, the Pilot players thought so. McHone said the league was more difficult and they had a lot of pressure to live up to after last year’s success.
            What made it special is Glenns Ferry ended a 16-year state tournament drought and played well in the postseason. Coach McHone and her daughter, Karli, received the Snake River Conference’s highest awards and Karli was an obvious choice for all state.
            “We had a decent team,” said coach McHone, who doubles as the school’s athletic director. “Our three-point shooting is where we had a lot of success. Our offense was built to try to find room to get Karli open.”
            Karli McHone, now a junior, has already shown herself to be a special talent. The team had little height, but averaged nearly six treys per game and shot almost as well from the perimeter as it did inside.
            It’s no surprise that Glenns Ferry’s basketball success started as McHone began to play a bigger role on the the varsity. This year, she led the team in scoring at 17.8 points per game and, in three years, has accumulated 1,173 points. When she graduates, she is probably going to create as big of a spot in the school’s history books as her mother did in the 1980s.
            McHone had a 31-point effort against Nampa Christian and three 29-point games. However, opponents quickly learned she was not a one-person team. Like last year, McHone had a lot of help and that created not just great statistics, but wins.
            * - Senior Sara Arellano finished her career in style, averaging 11.7 ppg and she led the team in rebounding.
            * - Senior Jade Gorrell averaged 7.9 ppg and was second to McHone in assists.
            Ellee Bryant, Deeona Bauman, Paola Rodriguez, Cassi Garza and others also shined at important times. There were several memorable events, like McHone’s fourth-quarter shooting at Nampa Christian, an amazing rally to beat Gooding, and the 50-33 win over nemesis Raft River at the district tournament.
            The Raft River win was part of a five-game win streak the Pilots had late in the season. It ended with a 51-50 loss to Grace and an overtime defeat to Hagerman. However, they made up for it with a win over Cascade in a play-in game that resulted in the team’s biggest celebration of the year.
            “It was a big help for our league to get that extra playoff spot this year. It was great win and it got us into state,” said coach McHone. “It was fun to see the kids realize a dream like that, even though I knew we would play (top-ranked) Prairie at state. I would have loved to have Hagerman’s spot. We would have played Notus and I would have loved to have a shot at them.”
            The Pilots gave Prairie a good game, but they didn’t get down after dropping the 42-27 decision. Coach McHone said the team was probably playing its best at the time, and were a formidable foe, despite receiving a low seed.
            Arellano, for example, really came on late in the year. In Glenns Ferry’s final five games – the district and state tournaments – she scored in double figures each time. Her 19-point effort at state against Hagerman was one of her best memories of the season.
            “I was ‘on’ in that game,” she said. “Sometimes, teams would focus on Karli and we would have to use our other threats. That game helped make it a great year.”
            With two straight good seasons, and the state tournament drought over, the Pilots will look to accomplish something else in McHone’s senior season.
            “She’ll probably do all right, but it won’t be about her,” coach McHone said. “It’s a team game and we’ll try to use this season to give us more momentum next year. It should be fun.”