Sweet Home 77, Newport 69
In a heavy shootout, the Husky boys won their first league basketball game of the season at Newport 77-69 on Jan. 20.
While the Huskies never really trailed in the game, “they (Newport) were a pretty talented team,” Coach Kostanty Knurowski said. “As you can tell it was an up and down game.”
The Huskies led 20-19 after one quarter. At halftime, they had established a 36-31 lead. They expanded the lead substantially in the third quarter, 55-41, and then denied a Newport rally in the fourth, when Newport closed the gap by six points.
The Huskies didn’t play defense as well as he would have hoped but offensively, they were pushing the ball hard, Knurowski said. “They were able to do that to us as well. They were able to push the ball. It was kind of a shootout.”
Justin Layton scored 14 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, including four threes right at the end of the game, Knurowski said. Newport whittled down a 14-point lead at the start of the quarter, he said, and although, “you never want to say this, we really had somewhat of a cushion throughout.”
It shows just how dangerous things can get when a team doesn’t play defense well enough, he said.
“Obviously, it’s nice to get that first league win out of the way. Hopefully, that’ll put us back in the league race. It’s still early, with a lot of games to be played.”
He is hoping the team will fare better in the second round of league play, he said.
Gavin Kauffman set a school record in shooting, at least since the school went to a 4A designation and possibly overall, scoring 37 on the game, Knurowski said.
Drew Emmert added 15; Levi Marchbanks, 12; Ryan Graville, five; Jerome Coleman, five; and Brent Moyer three. Brock Cota and Josh Riggs played but did not score.
Layton scored 25 to lead Newport. Mark Moore added 12; Tristan Metcalf, 12; Aaron Adamson, 10; Ryan Hoeft, four; and Trenton Palmer, Zak Bremner and Morrow, two each. Ryan Staggs played but did not score.
Central 61, Sweet Home 54
The Huskies played “fairly well” against Central Friday night, but they couldn’t stop the Panthers’ Michael Hamilton, who scored a game-high 22 points, including four three-pointers.
Hamilton made plays when it counted the most in a game that stayed tight through the first quarter, before the Panthers opened up a 28-21 halftime lead.
“We did not shoot well but we did great from the free throw line,” Knurowski said, referring to the Huskies’ 19-for-22 performance at the charity stripe. “We played hard and did not back down or give up.”
Sweet Home ran with Central in the third and fourth quarters, but could not close the gap in the final analysis, dropping to 1-4 in Val-Co action. Central was 5-0 going into this week’s games.
Drew Emmert led the Huskies with 13 points, while Brent Moyer and Gavin Kaufmman both added 10. Levi Marchbanks and Ryan Graville chipped in nine each, Jerome Coleman had two and Josh Riggs one.
– Dick Oglesby
Summary
SH 9 12 15 18 – 54
Central 10 18 14 19 – 61
Note to readers from Dick Oglesby: I am leaving Sweet Home Feb. 1. Many of the fans, players, and coaches have been great. Coach Rob Younger and family have been not only great friends but made every effort to welcome me to Sweet Home along with Scott Swanson and his family, the entire staff at The New Era and (water polo Coach) Craig Martin and his family.