Sweet Home’s boys basketball team extended its winning streak to eight games last week, beating Molalla 62-54 on the road Monday, Elmira 46-44 Tuesday and Central Linn 71-44 Wednesday.
“It was good to beat the two 4A teams back to back,” said Coach Drew Emmert. “We don’t have to back-to-back any more (until post-season possibly). I feel good with where we’re at.”
The defensive rotation needs to get better as the Huskies (10-1) move into what is going to be a difficult Oregon West Conference schedule, he said. Sweet Home is turning the ball over less when running their press, but he would like to see that number fall some more, and the team needs to work on finishing through contact.
League opponents are preparing to face the Huskies’ press, he said. “They’re at our games. We have to be very good at what we do. We’ve just got to keep focusing on what we’re good at and not let our weaknesses show.”
Against Molalla, the Huskies trailed 14-12 after a quarter before rallying to a 32-23 lead at halftime. The Huskies extended their lead to 46-32 by the end of the third quarter.
“We were ahead by 20 late in the third or early in the fourth,” Emmert said. “They made a little run to make it look closer than it was. We just didn’t play as well in the fourth quarter as we had been. We played good. We played hard.”
The Huskies have packed in more non-league games so far than any other 4A team, Emmert said, and they haven’t had a lot of time to practice between games. Last week, they played three games in three nights straight.
That showed last week as the team’s shooting percentage fell a little, but Sweet Home is carrying games with its deep bench as other teams get tired.
The Huskies’ press is working and forcing a lot of turnovers, Emmert said. Molalla turned the ball over 32 times, while Sweet Home turned it over just 15 times.
Zach Zanona and Jake Swanson led scoring with 11 points each.
Jeff Larsen led Molalla with 14. Colin Carpenter added 13, including three three-pointers.
The Huskies are off during Christmas break. They next travel to La Pine on Jan. 2 and then face a so-far undefeated Woodburn team to open league play.
The Huskies are fifth in OSAA rankings. Four Oregon West Conference teams are in the top 10 in the early rankings, which will shift as teams begin league play. Collectively, the Oregon West holds a 48-11 record, the best in the 4A. Sweet Home and Stayton have lost just one game. Newport, Philomath and Cascade have just two losses each, and former Sky-Em rival Sisters has the worst record so far at 5-3.
The next-best league-wide performance in the state is the Skyline Conference with a collective 27-19 record, with just one school holding a losing record.
Sweet Home 12 20 14 16 – 62
Molalla 14 9 9 22 – 54
Sweet Home scoring: Zach Zanona 11, Jake Swanson 11, Zach Luttmer 9, Colton Smith 8, Cade Gaskey 7, Casey Tow 6, Aiden Tyler 6, Hunter Coulter 4, Jasper Korn.
Molalla scoring: Jeff Larsen 14, Carpenter 13, Noe 9, Daniels 8, Ellis 3, Taylor, Kutsev, Pedeson, Sperl, House, Sandberg.
Sweet Home 46, Elmira 44
Playing back-to-back games, the Sweet Home scratched out a close win against Elmira.
The Huskies struggled early, trailing 8-5 after a quarter then tying Elmira 19-19 at halftime. The scored remained even at 32-32 after three quarters.
“They have a great coach,” Emmert said. “It’s hard playing at Molalla and then going to Elmira.”
Emmert said he was worried about his team’s energy levels in second of a triple-back schedule.
“It definitely wasn’t our best game by any means,” he said. The Huskies didn’t shoot free throws well, just 5-15 from the charity stripe and 2-8 in the last two minutes.
“It’s hard to win games when you do that,” Emmert said. Helping the Huskies, they had just 14 turnovers, while their press helped produce 28 Elmira turnovers.
“We just didn’t shoot very well,” Emmert said. Sweet Home shot 38 percent from the field while Elmira shot 48 percent. The Huskies are averaging 42 percent.
“Jake Swanson played really good that game,” Emmert said. He led scoring with 15 points. He did a good job guarding 6’6″ Jacob Marr, holding him to 11 points.
Keegan Cook led scoring for Elmira with 12 points.
Casey Tow added another 10 for Sweet Home.
Sweet Home 5 14 13 14 – 46
Elmira 8 11 13 12 – 44
Sweet Home scoring: Swanson 15, Tow 10, Tyler 6, Coulter 5, Gaskey 4, Zanona 3, Smith 3, Korn, Luttmer.
Elmira scoring: Keegan Cook 12, Marr 11, Chambers 9, Davis 8, Ossowski 4, Oilar, Pauler, Smart, Hernandez.
Sweet Home 71, Central Linn 44
The Huskies had a big score against Central Linn, Emmert said. “We played hard. We just got sloppy.”
When the score is lopsided like that, it’s easy to get sloppy, he said. Three games back to back makes it a little harder too, but everyone was able to get minutes in the game.
Sweet Home led 17-11 after a quarter and 40-19 at halftime. The Huskies led 54-33 at the end of the third quarter.
Tyler led Sweet Home scoring with 17 points. Robert Rowland led Central Linn with eight points.
Central Linn 11 8 11 14 – 44
Sweet Home 17 23 14 17 – 71
Central Linn scoring: Robert Rowland 8, Manuel 6, Anderson 6, Crowell 6, Krabill 5, Baze 4, Graham 4, Kachel 3, Thompson 2, Jeppsen, Schaffroth.
Sweet Home scoring: Tyler 17, Gaskey 10, Coulter 10, Luttmer 9, Tow 5, Zanona 4, Owen Towry 4, Swanson 4, Zanona 4, Brayden Keesee 3, Austen Miller 3, Smith 2, Korn.