Sweet Home picked up two losses last week in boys basketball, falling to Woodburn 74-40 at home on Jan. 29 and at Philomath 58-46 Friday night.
The Huskies fell from ninth to 13th in statewide rankings as a result.
It’s a tough league, said Coach Drew Emmert. “You can’t take a night off.”
If the league ended right now, all seven teams would make the playoff schedule based on rankings, he said. Cascade, currently in fifth place, is the lowest-ranked team at 19th.
Three Oregon West teams, including fifth-ranked Woodburn and ninth-ranked Philomath, remain in the top 10. The Huskies were scheduled to host Stayton, ranked third and undefeated in league, on Tuesday.
Emmert said the Huskies need three of the final four games, starting with Stayton, which is “as good as it gets”
Sweet Home will visit Cascade Feb. 12 and Sisters Feb. 15. They finish league hosting Newport on Feb. 19.
As the Huskies went into their game against Woodburn, “they’re ranked fourth in the state,” Emmert said. “They have a good shot of winning state. We didn’t play very well, and we didn’t shoot very well, and we didn’t execute our game plan against their best player (RJ Veliz). We played hard. We just didn’t play smart.”
Woodburn held a 15-14 lead after the first quarter and then went on a run, leading 41-20 at halftime. The Bulldogs led 61-31 at the end of the third quarter.
Hunter Coulter led the Huskies with 16 points. Veliz scored 32 for Woodburn.
Woodburn 15 26 20 13 – 74
Sweet Home 14 6 11 9 – 40
Woodburn scoring: RJ Veliz 32, Torres 11, Doman 9, Marroquin 8, Karsseboom 7, Stebner 4, Barajas 3, Tavera, Cruz, Miller, Vansmoorenburg, Rodriguez.
Sweet Home scoring: Hunter Coulter 16, Casey Tow 8, Nate Virtue 4, Zach Zanona 3, Colton Smith 3, Jake Swanson 3, Aiden Tyler 2, Jasper Korn 1, Austen Miller, Zach Luttmer.
The Philomath game was a lot closer, Emmert said. “It was within one with seven minutes left.”
Philomath led 10-6 after a quarter and 22-20 at halftime. At the end of the third, Sweet Home trailed 38-35.
After getting within a point, the Huskies made four back-to-back mental mistakes and gave up an eight point lead they couldn’t come back from, Emmert said. Again, the Huskies struggled from the field.
Tyler led the Huskies with 12 points, and Swanson added another 11. Ethan Manning led Philomath with 16 points.
Sweet Home 6 14 15 11 – 46
Philomath 10 12 16 20 – 58
Sweet Home scoring: Tyler 12, Swanson 11, Tow 9, Virtue 4, Coulter 4, Luttmer 2, Cade Gaskey 2, Zanona 1, Korn 1, Smith.
Philomath scoring: Ethan Manning 16, Lundy 12, Brattain 9, Stueve 8, Bennett 6, Snuggerud 3, Reams 2, O’Hare 2, Hellesto.