Sweet Home’s boys lost to two of their toughest league rivals in basketball last week at home, 71-63 in overtime against Philomath Jan. 8 and 62-25 against Stayton Friday.
Philomath 71, SH 63 (OT)
The Huskies struggled early against Philomath, falling behind 21-8 after a quarter and trailing 38-12 at halftime.
Philomath ran a 1-3-1 against the Huskies, said Coach Drew Emmert. Sweet home was “not scoring very well, so we couldn’t get into our press.”
They figured it out at halftime, Emmert said, and the Huskies came out and closed the gap to 20 points, 46-26, and then really poured it on in the fourth.
“We hit a couple of shots early,” Emmert said. “We got our press going.”
The Huskies scored 36 points in the fourth quarter, Emmert said. Cade Gaskey led the way with 17 points, leading the team in scoring on the game as well.
Down by eight with 22 seconds on the clock, Gaskey hit a shot and drew a foul. He missed the free throw, but his team kicked the rebound out to him. He hit a three to bring the Huskies within three of Philomath.
Philomath went to the line and missed twice with six seconds on the clock, Emmert said. “Aiden Tyler hit a deep three at the buzzer (tying the game at 62-62) to go into overtime.”
Philomath looked tired in the fourth, Emmert said, but the team bounced back and scored on three costly Sweet Home turnovers to get the win.
Michael Lundy led Philomath with 24. Ethan Manning added 23.
The Huskies are 0-3 in league and 11-4 overall. They are ranked eighth behind seventh-ranked Philomath. Stayton is ranked fourth, and Woodburn remains ranked at fifth.
Sweet Home will host Cascade at 5:30 p.m. Friday and Sisters at 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 22.
Philomath 21 17 8 16 9 – 71
Sweet Home 8 4 14 36 1 – 63
Philomath scoring: Michael Lundy 24, Manning 23, Stueve 8, Snuggerud 8, Hellesto 6, Reams 2, Bennett.
Sweet Home scoring: Cade Gaskey 17, Casey Tow 15, Jake Swanson 10, Zach Luttmer 7, Aiden Tyler 5, Zach Zanona 4, Hunter Coulter 2, Nate Virtue 2, Colton Smith 1, Jasper Korn,
Stayton 62, SH 25
Shooting just 22 percent on the game, the Huskies fell behind Stayton early, trailing 18-9 at the end of the first quarter.
“They’re really tall,” Emmert said. Stayton zoned up with 6-7 forward Riley Nichol and 6-8 center Kaleb Anundi starting under the bucket, making it hard to connect at the hoop; and the Huskies had a hard time hitting their jumpers.
That means they didn’t score well, and they didn’t get into their press, Emmert said. Adding to their difficulties, the Huskies recorded 28 turnovers.
Stayton shot 51.2 percent, scoring 24 points off turnovers, while turning the ball over 24 times and allowing just 10 points off turnovers.
Struggling at the net all game, Sweet Home trailed 27-13 at halftime and 42-16 at the end of the third quarter.
“Stayton’s a good team,” Emmert said. “They beat the team that won state last year (Seaside, which didn’t lose any players).”
At this point, the Huskies have played the three toughest opponents in the league, Woodburn, Philomath and Stayton, all top 10 teams in statewide rankings, Emmert said. “Obviously, we would like to get at least two of them.”
Luttmer led Sweet Home scoring with eight points. Anundi led Stayton with 20.
Stayton 19 8 15 20 – 62
Sweet Home 9 4 3 9 – 25
Stayton scoring: Kaleb Anundi 20, Nichol 10, Butler 8, Jenkins 7, Classen 5, Axmaker 5, Rash 3, Kirby 2, Whieldon 2, J. Bischoff, C. Bischoff, Vasquez.
Sweet Home scoring: Luttmer 8, Coulter 4, Swanson 4, Korn 3, Gaskey 3, Tow 2, Zanona 1, Tyler, Virtue.