Wood River Head Coach Matt Newhouse said he knew before the game that the boys on his Wolverine team did not want to take off their uniforms for the final time that night in Hailey.

He was prescient, as his team overcame missed opportunities at close range and poor free throw shooting to defeat the Canyon Ridge Riverhawks in the loser-out District Tournament game Thursday night.

A Nic Tidwell layup off a beautiful feed from Alec Nordsieck with 2.3 seconds remaining on the clock sealed the victory for the Wolverines in front of a spirited crowd at the Wood River High School Wolverine Den.

The final score: 36-34, in a low scoring game.

Both teams appeared tentative at the beginning of the game. Neither scored for the first two minutes. 

Wood River missed several layups and remained scoreless until Tidwell (18 points, 6 rebounds) rebounded one of those misses and put the Wolverines on the scoreboard three minutes into the ball game.  Nelson Cantrell (2 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal) stole the ball and went the length of the court for a layup to tie the game at four points.

That would be the extent of the Wood River scoring in the quarter, as Canyon Ridge led 6-4 after one period.

The lack of offensive output continued in the second period, but Tidwell kept the Wolverines close with seven points in the quarter, and the teams went to their locker rooms at the half tied 16-16.

Nordsieck (6 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists) dished out three assists in the quarter, looking for and finding his lanky forwards Tidwell and Cade Schott (3 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists) open in the paint.

The teams went cold again at the start of the third period until Nordsieck broke the seal on the basket with a layup two minutes into the second half.  A Travis Swanson (7 points, 3 rebounds) rebound and put back gave the home team their largest lead of the evening, 20-16.

Canyon Ridge came back to tie the game midway through the quarter, but the Wolverines scored the last five points of the period to lead 27-22 going into the fourth period.

Canyon Ridge had one more run left in them, as they scored nine unanswered points to start the final quarter, which gave them a 31-27 lead with four minutes to go in the ball game.

But Swanson and Tidwell scored on back-to-back layups to tie the score at 31 with less than two minutes remaining. A free throw by Swanson gave the Wolverines a brief lead, but Canyon Ridge senior wing Andrew Schwarz hit a floater in the lane to put the visitors on top 33-32 with one minute left.  Swanson scored again on the inside to give Wood River a one point lead, but the Riverhawks came back to tie the game with a free throw of their own, providing the Wolverines the ball and a chance to win.

Coach Newhouse called a time out with 17.8 seconds remaining and drew up a play for his two senior leaders.  Nordsieck took the ball at his defender as the clock ran down, spun away at the free throw line and delivered a perfect pass to Tidwell crashing along the baseline for the winning layup.

The Wolverines will face the Jerome Tigers in a loser-out game at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20, in Jerome.   This will be an opportunity for revenge for the Wolverines, who lost to the Tigers Tuesday night in the opening game of the Great Basin District Tournament.