The Huskies beat Elmira 54-38 in their final pre-league game Friday evening at home in boys basketball.
The Huskies led 13-7 after one quarter and kept up the pressure, building a 29-13 halftime lead. By the end of the third quarter, Sweet Home was ahead 45-23.
“Defensively, we played really well,” said Coach Drew Emmert, although on the offensive end of the court, the Huskies turned in their lowest percentage this year at the free throw line, 52.6 percent, and one of their lowest field goal percentages, 38.5 percent.
Sweet Home post Hunter Coulter helped neutralize 6-foot, 7-inch junior Jacob Marr, drawing two fouls from him early in the game and putting him in foul trouble, Emmert said, and overall, the Huskies kept the pressure on the Falcons.
“They just weren’t comfortable the whole night because of our pressure,” Emmert said. “We did a lot better job playing without fouling in our press.”
Coulter led Huskies scoring with 15 points. Bryson Forsman led Elmira’s effort with 12 points.
Heading into league at 9-2, “we’re shooting a lot better (this year), which makes it easier to get into our press,” Emmert said.
Fifth-ranked Sweet Home moves into Oregon West league play against eighth-ranked Woodburn at 7 p.m. Friday at home.
“They’re doing really good,” Emmert said. That’s like most of the rest of the league, which has five of the top 11 teams in the state.
“They run and play fast, like we do,” Emmert said. “if we don’t turn the ball over and we run our stuff, I think we’ll get good looks.”
The Huskies defense will need to speed up Woodburn’s offense, Emmert said, while on offense, the Huskies will have to maintain control and avoid being sped up by Woodburn’s defense.
He is sure that Woodburn is saying the same kind of thing at this point, Emmert said, and it’ll come down to whichever team runs its version of the game better.
“It’ll be a good game,” he said.
The Huskies hit the road for four games after that, starting with third-ranked Philomath on Jan. 14.
Philomath is the opposite of Sweet Home and Woodburn and will bring a slower half-court game on both ends, Emmert said.
Elsewhere around the league, Cascade is sixth in OSAA rankings, and Stayton is ranked 11th. Newport is ranked 19th, and Sisters is 32nd.
Elmira 3 16 16 9 – 54
Sweet Home 7 6 10 15 – 38
Elmira scoring: Bryson Forsman 12, Warner 6, Admire 5, Davis 4, Gillen 3, Fatooh 2, Hernandez.
Sweet Home scoring: Hunter Coulter 15, Aiden Tyler 12, Kai Bryson 7, Zach Luttmer 6, Brayden Keesee 5, Zach Zanona 5, Cole Baxter 4, Jasper Korn, Tye Moore, Casey Tow, Russell Holly.