Sweet Home picked up a win and a loss last week in boys basketball beating Sisters 51-42 at home Jan. 22 and falling 64-45 at Newport Friday, Jan. 25.
Those results leave Sweet Home in a three-way tie for fourth place in the Oregon West Conference with Newport and Philomath, each with two wins and four losses. The Huskies were ninth in OSAA rankings, maintaining their position in the top 10 with league rivals Stayton, Woodburn and Philomath.
“We’re OK in state rankings, but we’ve got to start winning a few,” said Coach Drew Emmert. “This is a big week for us.”
The boys were scheduled to face Woodburn at home Tuesday and travel to Philomath Friday and then Stayton Feb. 5.
Woodburn has one loss in league, while Stayton is undefeated in league play.
Last week, Sisters got an early edge on the Huskies but saw it dissipate in the second half.
“They play really slow, and we play really fast,” Emmert said. “We’re really deep. They’re not really deep.”
The teams played “super fast” in the first half, Emmert said, as Sisters went ahead 15-11 in the first quarter and maintained the lead, 31-29, at halftime.
At the fast pace, “we have way more guys to throw out,” Emmert said. “In the third quarter, we knew they’d try to slow it down. They had a couple of guys in foul trouble.”
The Huskies kept pushing their game and went ahead 37-35 by the end of the third quarter and holding Sisters to just 11 points on the second half to get the win.
Both teams turned the ball over 12 times, Emmert said. The Huskies weren’t able to force many turnovers, but their press did force a fast game that worked to their advantage.
“They’re not used to playing fast,” Emmert said of the Outlaws, noting that the pace forced Sisters to take quicker shots.
“They ran with us, but it meant they got a little tired in the second half.”
Sisters ended the game shooing 44.7 percent from the field, while Sweet Home shot 44.1 percent.
Jake Swanson led the Huskies with 14 points. Nate Virtue backed him up with a 10-point performance.
Jack Berg scored 20 to lead the Outlaws.
Sisters 15 16 4 7 – 42
Sweet Home 11 18 8 14 – 51
Sisters scoring: Jack Berg 20, Richards 12, Eagan 6, Waddell 4, Carhart, Peterson, Nichlaus, Weber, Linn, Scholl.
Sweet Home scoring: Jake Swanson 14, Nate Virtue 10, Aiden Tyler 7, Colton Smith 7, Casey Tow 7, Zach Zanona 2, Cade Gaskey 2, Hunter Coulter 2, Jasper Korn.
Newport 64, Sweet Home 45
Newport jumped to an big early lead and held it Friday night.
“That’s a pretty tough place to play,” Emmert said. “They’re streaky too,” and better than the win-loss record shows. Newport has played seven top 10-ranked teams and lost by one point in overtime to fourth-ranked Woodburn the previous week.
The Huskies shot poorly Friday night, missing a lot of easy layups, Emmert said. He hadn’t compiled all the stats on the game as of Monday, but from the foul line, they shot just 33 percent.
“We gave them too many open looks,” Emmert said. Newport kept its momentum going, and the Huskies were never able to get a run going.
The Huskies trailed 19-7 after one quarter and 29-21 at halftime. Newport expanded its lead to 49-29 by the end of the third quarter.
Swanson led scoring for the Huskies with 12 points, and Smith contributed another 11. Justin Plechaty led Newport with 22.
Sweet Home 7 14 8 16 – 45
Newport 19 10 20 15 – 64
Sweet Home scoring: Swanson 12, Smith 11, Coulter 8, Virtue 6, Zach Luttmer 4, Tyler 2, Gaskey 2, Zanona, Korn, Tow.
Newport scoring: Justin Plechaty 22, Beaudry 13, Tapia 9, Hidalgo 6, Bruns 5, Travis 4, Lehrer 1, Sampson, Baldwin, Cunningham.