Sweet Home 48
Cascade 38
Sweet Home earned its second league win of the year when its boys basketball team defeated Cascade 48-38 at home Friday night.
“They came in 2-0,” Coach Mark Risen said. “We came in 1-0. They had just beaten Central. They’re playing really well. I had a feeling they were going to zone us, which they dd. They’ve been scoring about 65 points per game, so I wanted to take them out of that a bit.”
Cascade also has Shawn Evans, who scored 28 against Central, and two posts, Carrow and Richman, who are combining for 30 points per game.
The Huskies held Evans to 11 points and the Carrow-Richman combo to 20.
“I was very pleased with our defense overall,” Coach Risen said. With about four minutes left in the game, the Huskies made an adjustment to the defense and kept Cascade from scoring a field goal for the final 3:47. On offense, “I thought we did a really good job being patient against the zone and looking for the shot we wanted.”
The Huskies controlled most of the game, leading 12-7 after the first quarter and 19-14 at halftime. Evans dropped back-to-back threes to tie the game at 24-24 with five minutes left in the third quarter.
Evans hit both of the threes in transition before the Huskies could find him.
“Good teams are going to make runs at you,” Coach Risen said. “They’re going to assert themselves somewhere. Other than that two-minute period, we controlled the game, which is what we want to do.”
The team played patiently against a zone defense, Coach Risen said, but the Huskies had to come back and build a lead after Evans’ threes.
“Obviously, once they tied it, we had to come down and make a couple of plays to take the lead again,” Coach Risen said. Defensively, Cascade wanted the Huskies to come down the court and try for a quick shot, but the Huskies stayed patient.
“The name of the game is to force your will or style of play on the game,” Coach Risen said. His Huskies did just that.
The Huskies led 33-29 after the third quarter. They widened their winning margin by another six in the fourth quarter to win the game.
“Our fourth quarter is always our best quarter,” guard Kevin Furry said. “We all get pretty mad. The seniors all come in together and put on a clinic.”
A big part of their fourth quarter came at the foul line where the Huskies were 9-10.
Husky defense was “outstanding,” Coach Risen said. “When it came time to hold them to one shot, we did, in the last four minutes of the game. So defense was just rock solid.”
From last year, “they’re a much better team, basically all juniors,” Coach Risen said of Cascade. “They’re just going to continue to get better. They’re going to make some noise in the conference before the (season) is over.”
Nik Walker led scoring for the Huskies with 14 points. Furry scored 11; Aaron Hegge, 10; Posthuma, six; Donny Cliver, three; Anthony Mink, two; and Tyler Emmert, two.
The Huskies are 9-4 overall and 2-0 in league.
Friday, the Huskies host North Marion, 1-1 as of Monday. North Marion beat Sisters bust lost to Molalla.
North Marion features the Miller brothers, Steven at guard and 6’3” Josh at post, Coach Risen said. Josh scored 31 against Sisters. Steven shoots well from the wing.
“We’ve got to handle the two guys, make sure we’ve got them accounted for,” Coach Risen said. “But you never know with (their) coach. He could run anything.”
Standings
Stayton 3-0
Sweet Home 2-0
Cascade 2-1
North Marion 1-1
Molalla 1-2
Sisters 0-2
Central 0-3