Is the young Sweet Home boys basketball squad starting to jell? After two wins last week over teams they had yet to beat this season, the Huskies are looking more and more like a team that might have a chance to progress past the league season.
Sweet Home 51, Taft 44
The boys’ basketball team found ways to finish the game Friday night at Taft to narrowly defeat a team 55-41 that had beaten them twice by two points, once in overtime.
“It was another close game,” Coach Kostanty Knurowski said. “We’ve come to expect that with Taft. It was a really close game the whole way.”
The Huskies scratched out a 16-13 lead after a quarter and a 29-22 lead by halftime, but they weren’t out of danger yet. Like the last time the teams met, Sweet Home would get a run and take a decent lead only to have Taft whittle that back down.
The Tigers started the second half with a different defense, which caused the Huskies problems, Knurowski said. Taft keyed in on Ryan Graville and Gavin Kauffman, making it tough for them to get open.
The Huskies played great defense too and kept Taft from getting much of an edge in the third quarter, Knurowski said. After three quarters, the Huskies led 35-30.
In the fourth, the Tigers managed to take a one-point lead. The Huskies took a timeout and went on an 8-0 run to lead by seven, but Taft then took a timeout and rallied to within a point with just a minute left.
It wasn’t enough, and the Huskies scored the last six points to finish off their hosts.
“Every one of our games has been that way,” Knurowski said. “We were finally able to break through against these guys. I feel like we’ve been playing a little bit better lately.”
The young Huskies have a lot more experience and seem more comfortable on the court, he said. “This is the type of game earlier in the year we weren’t finding ways to finish the game off.”
This time, they did, Knurowski said. The Huskies made the free throws and did the little things at the end, and they played with confidence.
Graville led scoring for the Huskies with 19 points. Kauffman added 13; Jerome Coleman, 10; Brent Moyer and Levi Marchbanks, four; Brock Cota, one; and Drew Emmert and Josh Riggs, played but did not score.
Kyle Hindman led Taft with 10 points. McNally added nine; Hathaway, eight; C. Buring, six; D. Buring, four; Willoughby, four; and Sawyer, three.
Sweet Home 61, Philomath 44
On Feb. 10, the Huskies defeated Philomath 61-44 at home.
The Warriors had previously defeated the Huskies by five at home and eight on the road.
The Huskies led 20-10 after the first quarter and 32-19 at halftime.
“We came out and shot the ball real well in the first quarter,” Knurowski said. “We got into a pretty good rhythm.”
The Huskies stepped up their defensive game too, Knurowski said. “We didn’t give up much until the fourth quarter when they hit three threes.”
Even then, Philomath made no serious headway cutting it deficit.
“One of our motivating factors was we knew we had to finish strong just to make playoffs,” Knurowski said. “Newport had been playing well. We knew we had to play well to stay in front of them.”
Also, it was senior night, he said, with Graville and Riggs playing for the last time at home. The underclassmen look up to the seniors and gave them their best.
Their lead expanded to 45-29 by the end of the third, and Philomath was unable to get within even 10 of the Huskies all game.
Graville led scoring for the Huskies with 20 points. Kauffman added 19; Coleman, six; Moyer, Emmert and Marchbanks, four; and Cota and Riggs, two.
Dan Haynes led Philomath with 13 points. Thomas added nine; MOtter, six; Whiteman, six; Straub, four; Bentlow, two; Hauton, two; and Alvarado, two.
Coleman was the third-highest scoring Husky in both games last week, reaching double digits against Taft.
“He’s really been doing a nice job,” Knurowski said. He’s started shooting well and getting to the line and shooting free throws well. He was 6-6 from the foul line on Friday.
“He’s an undersized post player, but he really shoots the ball well,” Knurowski said. He gets open shots and works hard on both ends, “the last week in particular.”
The Huskies remain in fourth place with a chance of tying for third or even a three-way tie at second. In any case, they will end up on a road trip on Monday to win a berth in state playoffs. If they make state, they will play all of their games on the road.
The Huskies are 13-10 overall and 4-7 in league, and they have now defeated the teams they will face during conference playoffs.
They play their final league game at Newport on Friday. Sweet Home defeated Newport twice.
Val-Co Boys Standings
Central 10-0
Philomath 5-5
Taft 5-6
Sweet Home 4-7
Newport 2-8