The Sweet Home boys basketball team beat La Pine 55-45 Dec. 23 at home and Harrisburg 61-44 on the road Friday before falling 71-59 to undefeated 5A South Albany Saturday at Linn-Benton Community College.
Against La Pine, “we played solid enough to win,” said Coach Drew Emmert. “We didn’t play great.”
Harrisburg played evenly against the Huskies, and Emmert was worried a bit, especially with a game scheduled the next day against South Albany, he said. But the Huskies came up with a few steals to spark a run to a 17-point win.
Against South Albany, “we competed with them,” Emmert said, but the Huskies didn’t defend quite as well as they needed to. South Albany built a five-point lead by halftime, and then it was back and forth through the game.
Sweet Home graduate Tim Matuszak in his first year coaching South Albany, Emmert said, and he’s doing “a really good job.”
Matuszak also assisted Emmert in Sweet Home.
Sweet Home is 8-2 with a game scheduled at home at 7 p.m. against Elmira Friday.
The Huskies will open league play Jan. 10, hosting Woodburn at 7 p.m.
“Our league is really good again this year,” Emmert said. “It’ll be fun to see what happens.”