Sweet Home ended a tough season in girls basketball at home Friday with a 43-38 loss to Junction City.
Coach Steve Brown called it the best game the girls played all season, better even than those the team won.
At Junction City earlier in the season, the girls lost 53-32.
“Their coach had a lot of praise for our team,” Brown said. “They played way better than the last time. There wasn’t that many games we had an actual chance the whole time.”
The Huskies led the first quarter 10-8. They led 20-19 at halftime. Junction City took the lead in the third quarter, and the Huskies trailed just 28-26 at the end of the third. Junction City expanded its lead by only three points in the fourth.
McKenna Straube sank five threes in the game to lead Junction City with 21 points, Brown said. If those had been two-pointers, it would have been a tie game.
While they probably didn’t shoot well, Brown said, three of the girls put up substantial points, Jordan Miller with 13, Ally Tow with 11 and Jessica Stockman with eight.
“We played a lot of the fourth quarter without Tow,” Brown said. “She fouled out on a charge.”
The girls turned the ball over 18 times, much less than their average during the season. They stole the ball 10 times and blocked nine shots. They pulled down 18 defensive rebounds and six offensive rebounds.
“We really, really, really played well,” Brown said. The only exception was in shooting. “I haven’t gotten my shot chart back yet, but I bet we missed 10 in the paint at least.
“I feel good,” Brown said. “I hope they feel good about themselves. No one can say they didn’t try. Some days, you try as hard as you can, you still come up short.”
The five starters played about every quarter without breaks with the team so shorthanded, he said. They kept at it, despite losing 16 games in a row, and had one of their best games Friday night.
“We had blocks, steals,” Brown said, and Kaitlynn Autry came off the bench to snag three boards, a steal and shoot 2-2 from the foul line.
It shows that Sweet Home spirit, he said, and it was a great way for the seniors to go out.
“The only better way to close it would have been to win,” Brown said. “But they showed the heart of a Husky.”
On Feb. 17, the Huskies lost 64-27 at Cottage Grove.
They trailed 17-2 after one quarter, 32-10 at halftime and 48-16 after three quarters.
The girls finish 0-10 in league and 1-19 overall. Top-ranked Sutherlin was the league champion with a 10-0 league record and 24-0 overall record. Cottage Gtove was second with a 7-3 league record and 14-10 overall record. Junction City finished third with a 5-5 league record and 12-12 overall record.
Junction City 8 11 9 15 – 43
Sweet Home 10 10 6 12 – 38
Junction City scoring: McKenna Straube 21, A. Devorak 7, Graton 6, E. Devorak 5, K. Thompson 4, N. Thompson 4, Eba, Hanson.
Sweet Home scoring: Jordan Miller 13, Ally Tow 11, Jessica Stockman 8, Birttnay Brownell 4, Kaitlynn Autry 2, India Porter.
Sweet Home 2 8 6 11 – 27
Cottage Grove 17 15 16 15 – 64
Sweet Home scoring: Miller 10, Stockman 8, Tow 6, Brownell 2, Porter 1, Autry, Sarita Zanona.
Cottage Grove scoring: Conner Borigo 20, Thielman 14, Mootz 8, Neely 6, Ferguson 6, Sayles 4, Albrecht 3, Gardner, Lilly, Borrelli, Anderson.