Sweet Home’s boys held off a massive fourth-quarter surge by the third-ranked Philomath Warriors Friday night to win 51-42 at home in boys basketball.
That followed a 54-44 defeat at the hands of Woodburn on the road Feb. 4.
Against Philomath, the Huskies built a 13-7 lead in the first quarter and then led 27-14 at halftime. Philomath closed the gap in a low-scoring third quarter, leaving Sweet Home ahead 32-21.
In the final quarter, Philomath doubled its score, with 21 points, but Sweet Home added another 19 points, 15 of them from the charity stripe, to secure the win.
“We played good from the get-go,” said Coach Drew Emmert. “We had great defense from start to finish.”
When the Huskies scored five in the third, Emmert said, that defense kept Philomath to seven and Sweet Home in position to win.
Philomath slowed things down in the fourth quarter, started scoring and then fouling to stop the clock, Emmert said.
Sweet Home didn’t shoot free throws very well, but they hit enough to keep the lead, Emmert said. “It was a good win.”
Philomath was ranked third in the state and fell to fourth following the game.
Sweet Home shot 44 percent from the field, while Philomath shot 40 percent. Sweet Home had 29 rebounds, while Philomath had 23. Each team turned the ball over 13 times.
Hunter Coulter led scoring for the Huskies with 19 points and five rebounds. Michael Lundy led the Warriors with 17 points.
Philomath fell to fourth in the state rankings and is now third in league with a 6-2 record. Sweet Home’s record advanced to 3-5. The Huskies are ranked 10th.
They were scheduled to face Stayton, 4-4 and ranked 14th, Tuesday at home. They will host seventh-ranked Cascade, 6-1, at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 18.
Cascade is tied with third-ranked Woodburn, 6-1, for first place in the Oregon West Conference. Philomath is in third place, and Sweet Home is in fifth, followed by Newport, 2-6, and Sisters, 0-8.
At this point, Sweet Home is still positioned to make the play-in round, “but we’ve got to take care of business to do that,” Emmert said.
Philomath 7 7 7 21 – 42
Sweet Home 13 14 5 19 – 51
Philomath scoring: Michael Lundy 17, May 14, Stueve 11, Matthews, Olsen, Reams, Edwards, Gerding, Bennett, Hibbs.
Sweet Home scoring: Hunter Coulter 19, Casey Tow 11, Aiden Tyler 8, Jasper Korn 4, Zach Luttmer 4, Cole Baxter 2, Zach Zanona, Kai Bryson.
At Woodburn, Sweet Home fell behind quickly, 14-7 after the first quarter and 31-17 by halftime. They got back within striking distance, trailing 38-32 by the end of the third quarter. They closed the gap to 44-41 with about three minutes left in the game, but Woodburn hit a couple of big shots and closed the door, outscoring the Huskies 16-12 overall in the final quarter.
“We didn’t play very good from the start,” Emmert said. “We just didn’t run our stuff very well.”
His team couldn’t get in rhythm, he said.
Coulter led the Huskies with 13 points. Casey Tow added another 12. Tomas Veliz led Woodburn with 16.
Sweet Home shot a little better from the field than Woodburn at 38 percent, while Woodburn shot 37 percent. Woodburn beat Sweet Home on the boards, pulling down 41 rebounds, including 15 on offense, while Sweet Home had 28. The Huskies turned the ball over 16 times, while the Bulldogs did it 15 times.
Sweet Home 7 10 15 12 – 44
Woodburn 14 17 7 16 – 54
Sweet Home scoring: Coulter 13, Tow 12, Tyler 9, Luttmer 4, Baxter 3, Zanona 3, Korn, Brayden Keesee.
Woodburn scoring: Tomas Veliz 16, Je. Marroquin 12, Miller 6, Cherimnov 5, Blem 4, Beyer 4, Jo. Marroquin 2, Nelson 2, Trevino 2, Bustamante 1, Lua.