Dick Oglesby
For The New Era
The Sweet Home boys basketball squad emerged with four wins and two losses from a holiday season complicated by weather that forced the cancellation of at least two games and hasty additions of match-ups with Lebanon and East Linn Christian.
The Huskies managed to get to the Sisters Tournament, where they lost to the hosts but beat Gladstone, and they beat Estacada on the road after losing to Cascade at home.
Sweet Home 74, Estacada 61
Gavin Kauffman poured in 31 points Saturday, Jan. 3, as the Huskies rebounded from a loss to No. 4-ranked Cascade the day before to beat Estacada 74-61 on the road.
“We played better, winning the first three quarters as we had a very good tempo and we were ready to play,” Coach Kostanty Knurowski said.
The Huskies were able to resist Estacada’s pressure and applied some of their own, forcing the Rangers to make some mistakes and commit turnovers.
“The team played very well,” Knurowski said.
Behind Kauffman’s scoring outburst, Ryan Graville added 19, Levi Marchbanks 11, Drew Emmert five, Josh Riggs three, Brent Moyer and Jerome Coleman two each, and Brock Cota had one.
Sweet Home 16 20 20 18 €“74
Estacada 13 17 13 18 €“61
Cascade 74, Sweet Home 69
The unranked Huskies played at home against No. 4 Cascade and lost a close game, 74- 69.
Sweet Home won the first and fourth quarters, but it wasn’t enough against the talented Cougars.
“We played very well against their 1-3-1 defense,” Knurowski said. “We scored and played especially well in the first quarter, scoring 25 points against their 18.”
Sweet Home led 42-40 at the half, but a scoring drought in the third quarter killed the Huskies’ chance for a win, though the coach noted that his team still put out “a good effort” that “made the game competitive.”
Kauffman was high scorer for Sweet Home, with 21. Marchbanks added 19, Graville scored 9 points on three 3-pointers, Riggs had eight, Emmert five, Moyer two, and Cota one.
Sweet Home 25 17 5 22 €“ 69
Cascade 18 22 17 17 €“ 74
Sisters Tournament
The Huskies traveled to Sisters the weekend after Christmas for the Sisters Tournament, coming away with third place after splitting their matchups against the No. 5 Outlaws and Gladstone.
Sisters 58, Sweet Home 37
After a 2 1/2-hour trip through the snow and back-to-back games, the Huskies opened against the Outlaws, who have three 6-5 starters. (Sweet Home’s tallest player is Riggs, at 6-3.)
Knurowski said those circumstances didn’t faze his team.
“We were not affected by either as we played very well, focused on defense and played a very competitive game against the Sisters team,” he said.
The Huskies trailed by two after the first quarter, 13-11 and ran with the Outlaws in the third, both scoring 14, but scoring fell off for Sweet Home in the second and fourth periods, leading to the loss.
Levi Marchbanks played “very well,” leading the Huskies with 14 points, he said.
Graville added nine, Riggs six, Kauffman five and Emmert three.
Sweet Home 11 7 14 5 €“ 37 Sisters 13 13 14 18 €“ 58
Sweet Home 68, Gladstone 63
Graville, who was named to the All-Tournament team, led the Huskies against Gladstone with 20 points.
Knurowski noted that this is the third time this Sweet Home team has beaten the Gladiators, “a good team” €“ twice during summer league play and then again at Sisters.
“We’ve beaten them each time by a very close margin,” he said.
The game was a scrapper, despite the fact that Sweet Home led by 11 at halftime.
“It was back and forth the whole game €“ we couldn’t put them away,” Knurowski said. “It was a good win against a good team.”
In addition to Graville’s 20 points, Emmert had 15, Kauffman 13, Coleman seven, and Moyer and Marchbanks six each.
Sweet Home 15 20 15 18 €“ 68 Gladstone 14 10 17 22 €“ 63