Sweet Home lost its opening league game 49-36 to Woodburn in girls basketball at home Friday evening.
Woodburn took the early lead and was ahead 14-7 after a quarter. Sweet Home rallied to a 21-19 halftime lead, but Woodburn bounced back to lead 35-28 at the end of the third quarter.
“We didn’t win because we had 27 turnovers,” said Coach Michelle Knight, noting that the girls did prepare all week for Woodburn’s half-court trap.
“We turned the ball over too much, and we missed 14 free throws. You can’t win a game with those kind of stats.
“I rewatched the film. We played really well. We just had too many turnovers.”
The team needs to do a better job identifying opponent shooters, Knight said. The Huskies did that in this game, but they didn’t do well at shutting her down.
“We’re going to watch film today and go through the stuff we need to work on,” Knight said. “We’re going to get to work tonight on getting ourselves prepared for working under pressure.”
Preparing for tough games against top-ranked Philomath and eighth-ranked Stayton, the Huskies are working hard on their footwork and positioning, passing well and the little things, Knight said. “I’m excited because all the things that went wrong Friday are things we can fix.”
Becky Belcher led Huskies scoring with 13 points. Adaira Burger added 10. Aria Kent led Woodburn with 20 points, including four three-pointers.
The Huskies were scheduled to travel to Philomath Tuesday. They will travel to Stayton Friday and then Cascade on Jan. 24.
Woodburn 14 5 16 14 – 49
Sweet Home 7 14 7 8 – 36
Woodburn scoring: Aria Kent 20, T. Kent 8, Nesham 6, Cabrera 6, Cruz 4, Kalugin 2, Salinas, Zepeda, Arechiga, Christianson
Sweet Home scoring: Becky Belcher 13, Adaira Burger 10, Natalie Rodgers 5, Brooke Burke 3, Katie Miller 3, Kassidy Vandehei 2, Kirsten Watkins.