Coach Kosanty Knurowski exhorts his players during a time-out in their second-round boys basketball playoff game against Phoenix Saturday night.

Being the favorite isn’t always friendly and Sweet Home boys basketball team discovered that Saturday night.

After having not played a game in 15 days, since they were the No. 1 seed in the 4A state playoff bracket, the Huskies fell 62-60 to Phoenix, ending their season in the second round of state playoffs at home.

“Definitely disappointing,” said Coach Kostanty Knurowski.

“Our transitional defense in the second quarter started to break down a little bit. They started getting some open looks.”

The Huskies got off to an aggressive start, building a 12-9 lead in the first quarter, and extending it to 10 points during the second quarter.

But then Sweet Home’s defense started breaking down, with players picking up the wrong opponent and getting confused, allowing the Pirates an opportunity to get back in the game.

“Obviously, they took advantage of it and definitely made a run out of it,” Knurowski said. Phoenix turned its deficit into a five-point advantage by halftime, 30-25.

The Huskies spent the rest of the game grinding away at that lead. Three minutes into the third quarter, the Pirates had extended their lead to 37-30. The teams traded baskets, and the Huskies started narrowing the gap when Willie Jones scored off an offensive board. Drew Emmert dropped a pair of free throws, and Jones brought the Huskies within two, 39-37, with 2:52 left in the third quarter, dropping the front end of a pair at the foul line.

Alex Hobson and Gavin Kauffman traded threes, but Justin Bohn dropped another trey for the Pirates to lead 45-40. Kauffman answered with an inside shot and the Huskies trailed 45-43. In the last minute, with Sweet Home forced to foul, Skyler Reagan went 3-4 from the free throw line for Phoenix, and Kauffman shot 2-2 followed by another bucket from Bohn to end the third quarter. Sweet Home trailed 50-44.

Emmert started scoring in the fourth, shooting 1-2 from the line. Bohn scored another three a minute into the quarter to build Phoenix’s first eight-point lead of the game, 53-45. Emmert went to the line again and missed on a 1-1. he grabbed his own board and put it back in. Brock Cota hit two from the line to shrink the lead to 53-49, but Phoenix answered with buckets from Tyler Dungannon and Hobson to establish another eight-point lead, 57-49, with about four minutes left.

Emmert picked off a Phoenix pass and drew a foul, scoring both shots. The Huskies snagged the ball again, and Kauffman picked up an offensive board from Levi Marchbanks to score again, shrinking the lead to 57-53.

Alex Young scored another basket for Phoenix, but Emmert drew a foul on a three-pointer and hit all three free throws to get within three, 59-56. No one scored for the next minute, and then Kauffman assisted Jones to bring the score to 59-58 with 1:23 left on the clock.

Sweet Home sent Phoenix to the line on its next two possessions. The Pirates missed, but Kauffman missed his next shot. Reagan grabbed the defensive board, and Young was fouled to stop the clock at about 30 seconds. He hit both shots, while Emmert missed a three-point attempt.

With about 12 second left, the Huskies fouled Young, who scored the front end for a 62-58 Phoenix lead. The Pirates kept their distance as Emmert ran the court to hit a layup with five seconds left. Phoenix held the ball till the clock ran down and lobbed it to the other end to finish the game.

“It seemed like every time we would get within striking distance, they would hit a three,” Knurowski said. “It wasn’t our best game, which is unfortunate.”

He thought the Huskies played hard, and they achieved some of their goals, he said. They wanted to be aggressive on the boards and get to the foul line. They shot 34 times compared to 18 for Phoenix, including the fouling at the end of the game to stop the clock.

At one point in the second quarter, the Huskies shot the ball and grabbed the offensive board six or seven times, but it wouldn’t fall.

That effort was good, Knurowski said, but the team struggled to score and did not execute as well as it normally does.
“To Phoenix’s credit, when they were given open looks, they knocked them down,” he said.

It’s tough taking a long break, and that may account for a little of the Huskies’ troubles Saturday, Knurowski said. With breaks like that, a team can get rusty in basketball, but it still has to go out and get the job done.

He tried to get a game in during the break, but he wasn’t able to find any takers, he said. That won’t happen again.

“That doesn’t take anything away from what Phoenix did,” he said. “They’re a very well-coached team with a lot of talent and some good athletes.”

Knurowski is pleased with the season overall, he said. “We had a great season. It’s hard to really grasp that right now because it still hurts.”

But when they look back, they will remember being league champions in probably the toughest league in the state, he said. “Our league is well-represented. We feel like we were as good as anybody.”

The Huskies beat the top-ranked team in the state three times and spent five weeks at the top of the state coaches polls, Knurowski said. Kauffman was player of the year in the conference. Emmert was first team. Jones was second team. Moyer and Marchbanks received honorable mention.

“It’s going to be hard to see these seniors go,” Knurowski said. It’s one of the best groups of seniors he has ever worked with. They have great character and leadership. “It just seems it ended too soon.”

Seniors graduating this year include Cota, Marchbanks, John Webb, Jones and Jerome Coleman. Gavin will return next year with five junior varsity swing players, including Kyle Winslow, Robert Rubidoux, Chris Webb, Dallas Morgan and Justin Rice.
All of them have improved a lot, and the JV won about two-thirds of its games this year.

Although losing a lot of experience, Knurowski said, the Huskies should be competitive next year, depending on how well the younger players adapt to the varsity level.

“Gavin is a great player to build around,” Knurowski said. “He’ll have a chance to have a very good year next year.”

But it will just be with a different cast of teammates, he said.

Scoring Summary
Phoenix 9 21 20 12 – 62
Sweet Home 12 13 19 16 – 60
Scoring:
Phoenix – Alex Young 17, Hobson 12, Bohn 10, Reagan 10, Dungannon 7, Treadway 4, Lapat 2, Richardson.
Sweet Home – Gavin Kauffman 22, Drew Emmert 21, Willie Jones 5, Brent Moyer 4, Brock Cota 3, Levi Marchbanks 3, Jerome Coleman 2.