5th District All-Star Basketball Games

On Monday night, the 5th district held their annual all-star boys and girls basketball games at Pocatello high school.  Each game featured several local players from the three high schools in Caribou County.  Players are nominated by their coach at the end of the season.  After all the nominations are collected a committee selects which players will play in the all-star game.

The girls game started things off with five local girls selected, as well as Grace’s head coach Kyle Christensen coaching the South team.  Jinetti Garbett did not play in the game but was recognized for being selected as part of the team.  The other four girls were Jacie Christensen, Sydnee Smith, Melodie Straatman all from Grace on the South team, and Hayden Corta from North Gem on the North team.  Prior to the start of the game coaches from both teams agreed to let Melodie Straatman (who is in a cast from a broken arm suffered at the state tournament) start the game and make the first layup.  After that initial basket Straatman would come out of the game and spend the rest of the game next to Coach Christensen on the bench cheering on the other girls.  The three remaining Caribou County girls would all play very well with the girls from fifteen schools in the district.  Christensen and Corta would be some of the primary ball handlers for their respective teams while Smith was one of the game’s leading scorers.  Coach Christensen commented, “It’s always fun to have that type of a game where there’s no pressure and you get to work with the best girls from the district.”  In the end it would be the South team with Smith and Christensen that would get the victory with a score of 61-51.

In the boys game once again there were five local players involved.  Twin brothers Joe and Kai Clegg represented Grace, Quinten Hansen and Caleb Thompson represented Soda Springs and Evan O’Brien with his boisterous fan base represented North Gem. The twins from Grace would be on the North team while the other three would be on the South team.  Once again Caribou County would have a good showing.  The game was fairly competitive throughout, with all the local players having an impact in one way or another.  In the end it would be the South team with O’Brien, Thompson, and Hansen that would come out victorious with a score of 90-81.  All in all, it was a night of fun and celebration.  All the players, whether on the winning team or not, were all smiles and appeared to enjoy one last high school game together.  Congratulations to all involved and good luck moving forward.