BVL opener goes to Sutter

With a starting lineup that averages just over 6-feet tall, Sutter High's boys basketball team has to take unorthodox methods to beat teams this season.

Unlike most squads, the Huskies don't have a traditional post player to control the paint and, as a result, don't roll out a traditional lineup. Instead, they opt to stack the court with five guards and use ball movement and outside shooting to put points on the board.

Such was the case on Tuesday night when they opened Butte View League play at home against Wheatland. Points in the paint were hard to come by against the Pirates, so the Huskies decided to stand back behind the arc to simply outshoot their rivals from Yuba County.

The tactic worked as Sutter went on to hit seven 3-pointers in the game and led nearly the entire contest to pick up a 44-36 victory in its sparkling new gymnasium.

Sutter scored only 16 points in the paint on the evening, however, its pressure defense and solid outside shooting proved to be enough to earn the win.

"When you don't have a dominant big man inside, you have to improvise with speed and shooting," Huskies coach Bernie DiDario said. "We have seven guards on the team, so we've got to play that way."

The Huskies (7-10, 1-0) got things going early by hitting two 3s in the opening period to take an 11-6 lead after the first quarter. Trent Little led the way by scoring six points in the first period and the Huskies didn't trail after falling behind 2-0 in the opening minute.

With all of those guards on the court, Sutter was also able to use its quickness to make things tough on the Pirates on the offensive end. The Huskies went on to force 31 turnovers in the game, much to the chagrin of Wheatland coach Jim Vossler.

"We just had too many unforced turnovers tonight," Vossler said. "They didn't do much, we just threw a lot of balls away and you can't do that stuff this late in the year."

Sutter's Elijah Smith led all scores with 12 points and was a force on the defensive end as well with five steals. Little and Quentin Hick scored eight points each and Nathan Ahlers dropped in seven in the win.

Little and Garrett Wallace also had four steals each for the Huskies, who swiped 23 in the game.

"We try to take advantage of the fact that we have enough guards to play with that type of pressure," DiDario said. "We don't always succeed, but that's our goal — to keep the pressure up."

Shaye Milner scored a team-high 10 points for Wheatland (4-14, 0-1), while Nolan West and Taylor Youstra added six each. West was also shined on the glass for the Pirates, pulling down a game-high 14 rebounds in the loss.

Sutter also won the junior varsity contest 50-33. Jordan Samson scored 14 points to lead the way for Wheatland (8-7, 0-1).