With strong defensive stands, the Huskies won three straight games in boys basketball last week, beating 2A Central Linn 61-39 on the road Dec. 4, Phoenix 51-32 at home Wednesday and North Valley 36-22 at home Saturday.
“Defensively, we were a lot better than last week,” said Coach Drew Emmert, referring to a pair of losses the opening week of basketball. “All three games – that’s really how we won all three of those games. Overall, I was very pleased with the week.”
Sweet Home is 3-2 overall and 13th in OSAA rankings.
The Huskies were scheduled to travel to Jefferson Tuesday. The Huskies host Cascade at 7:15 p.m. Friday and travel to Siuslaw on Dec. 18.
Jefferson, a 3A school, is pretty good, Emmert said. “If we play defense like we have been and play offense we should be OK in that one.”
While he was focusing on the Jefferson game Monday, Emmert was thinking about Cascade too.
Cascade opened its season losing to Corbett 72-59 then edging out last year’s Sky-Em champion Cottage Grove 58-53.
The Cougars have a pair of big players, 6 feet 7 inches and 6 feet 6 inches, at center as well as forwards topping out at 6 feet 5 inches and 6 feet 4 inches. All of them are seniors.
The Cougars are big, good and athletic, Emmert said. “We’re definitely going to have to guard their bigs.”
More importantly at this point though, the Huskies will need to “worry about what we’re doing” and keep “getting better at what we’re doing,” he said. “Cascade’s going to be tough. It’ll be a good test to see where we’re at.”
Siuslaw is 4-2 and 10th in OSAA rankings.
If his players can maintain on defense, they’re going to be a tough team to beat, Emmert said.
SH 61, Central Linn 39
Against Central Linn, “we came out really well in the first quarter,” Emmert said. “We jumped on them early and kept the lead the whole game.”
By the end of the first quarter, the Huskies were ahead 24-8. The Huskies poured it on through the second quarter, leading 43-20 at halftime.
After that scoring was fairly even, and Central Linn wasn’t able to close the gap much at any point. The Huskies led 51-29 after three quarters.
Four players scored in the double digits that game, and Hayden Nichol led the way with 12 points, including two three-pointers, five rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Jake Swanson and Andrew Freitag each contributed another 11 points and two steals, Freitag with 13 rebounds and two assists and Swanson with four rebounds and four assists. Trey Lucero added 10, including two three-pointers.
As a team, the Huskies shot 40.9 percent from the field, while Central Linn shot 35.6 percent.
Sweet Home dominated the offensive board, pulling down 20 compared to just nine for Central Linn. The Huskies stole the ball 17 times compared to five times for Central Linn.
The Huskies turned the ball over 11 times. Central Linn gave up 21 turnovers.
Sweet Home 24 19 8 10 – 61
Central Linn 8 12 9 10 – 39
Sweet Home scoring: Hayden Nichol 12, Andrew Freitag 11, Jake Swanson 11, Trey Lucero 10, Nate Virtue 6, Casey Tow 4, Keegan Holly 3, Jasper Korn 2, Colton Smith 2, Zach Zanona, Nick Marler, Lance Hanson.
Central Linn scoring: Anthony Anderson 13, Jeronimo 12, Thompson 5, Krebill 4, Rowland 3, Baze 1, Holmes, Crowell, Graham, Bishop.
SH 51, Phoenix 32
The Huskies played their next game the same way, building a crushing 23-5 lead over Phoenix by the end of the first quarter.
The Huskies led by a minimum of 14 most of the remaining minutes, leading 37-19 at halftime and 44-30 at the end of the third quarter. Phoenix pulled within 12 points briefly in the fourth quarter.
The Huskies are streaky on the shot this year, Emmert said. They shot 43.2 percent from the field in this game, and scored 3-9 from the three-point line. From the foul line, they shot just 47.6 percent, while Phoenix hit 35.5 percent of its shots, 2-7 from the three-point line and 34.8 percent from the free throw line. The Huskies shot the ball 44 times in the game, down by a third from Central Linn.
“We didn’t shoot really well,” Emmert said. “We were just solid defensively. Any time we hold a team to 32 points, we’re going to win.”
Freitag was the only double-digit scorer, with 10 points, including a three pointer.
“He’s been pretty consistent, averaging a double double the first three games,” Emmert said.
Zanona added another nine points to the board, including a three-pointer, along with four rebounds, an assist and two steals, while Swanson and Smith each contributed seven points. Swanson had nine rebounds with three assists and three steals. Tow hit a three to help put five on the scoreboard.
The Huskies dominated the boards all night, pulling down 19 offensive rebounds compared to three by Phoenix and 23 defensive rebounds, compared to 14.
Both teams had turnover problems, with Sweet Home losing the ball 21 times and Phoenix turning it over 18 times.
Phoenix 5 14 11 2 – 32
Sweet Home 23 14 7 7 – 51
Phoenix scoring: David Lozano-Reyes 13, Bottermans 6, Brennan Watts 5, Braeden Watts 5, Gail 2, Martinez 1, Goff, Mendez, Peterson, Moreno.
Sweet Home scoring: Freitag 10, Zanona 9, Smith 7, Swanson 7, Nichol 6, Holly 5, Tow 5, Virtue 2, Marler.
SH 36, North Valley 22
Against North Valley, “on the defense, we were outstanding,” Emmert said. It’s the best defense he’s seen his team play since he became coach last year.
The team won state four years ago and averaged better than 50 points per game so far this year, Emmert said. The Huskies man-to-man held North Valley to just 22 points.
The Huskies took a 6-0 lead by the middle of the first quarter. North Valley tightened the score to 6-4 by the end of the first quarter. Sweet Home broke away in the second quarter and led 19-10 at halftime. Holding North Valley to just three points in the third quarter, the Huskies led 27-13 heading into the fourth quarter.
“Offensively, we still weren’t real smooth,” Emmert said, and the Huskies ended up with their lowest-scoring game of the year too with 36 points.
The Huskies can get stagnant on offense, he said, especially when their opponents go into a zone, like North Valley and Phoenix did.
“If we can get our offense going, we’ll be doing pretty good,” Emmert said. “We’re missing a lot of shots we need to hit. We need to attack and move the ball a little better.”
Swanson led the Huskies with 12 points, with five rebounds and an assist. Freitag added seven with a three-pointer. Nichol hit a three on his way to a four-point game.
The Huskies shot 37.5 percent on 40 field goal attempts and went 4-5 at the foul line. North Valley shot16.2 percent on 37 shots.
Sweet Home pulled down 31 boards, while holding North Valley to 23. The Huskies stole the ball 12 times, while North Valley snagged it from a Husky four times.
North Valley 4 6 3 9 – 22
Sweet Home 6 13 8 9 – 36
North Valley scoring: Blaise Pock 11, C. Lauby 4, Wytcherly 2, Smith 2, Johnson 2, McLittle 1, T. Lauby, Kilborn, Cram, Avila, Taylor.
Sweet Home scoring: Swanson 12, Freitag 7, Virtue 5, Nichol 4, Smith 4, Holly 2, Tow 2, Zanona, Marler, Zach Luttmer, Korn, Hanson.