Sweet Home wrapped up its girls varsity basketball season with two losses, but with what was probably its best game of the season.
The Huskies went winless this year, but last week, as the season wound down, the young team began getting some traction at home against Elmira Feb. 14.
Sweet Home lost the game 53-40, but it was the Huskies’ highest- scoring game of the year and their first game since December in which they scored more than 30 points.
“Elmira was probably our best game all year,” said Coach Dave McNeil, and “that’s the first time we played a solid game against a top tier team.”
After a disastrous first 22-3 first quarter and a timeout, the girls came back onto the floor and started putting up points.
“They started hitting their shots,” McNeil said. “After starting rough, they came together and started playing as a team.”
The Huskies trailed 35-13 at halftime and then put up 18 points in the third quarter, closing the gap to 49-31. The continued to make headway in the final quarter, outscoring Elmira 9-4.
“It’s a mindset for the girls,” McNeil said. “That competitive mindset. Talent-wise, the girls are just as talented as the others. The girls have really improved.”
They came out of the early timeout and put together three solid quarters, McNeil said. “They just need to do four quarters now, and they’ll start winning some of these games.”
The key to that is their perceptions, mindsets and expectations, McNeil said.
April Underwood led the Huskies attack with 15 points. Kayla Miller added nine; MaKayla Towry, six; Hailey Silver, five; Alana Silver, two; and Anna Coleman, two. Miranda Jensen led the Falcons with 15 points.
The Huskies lost 53-24 Friday at Sutherlin to end their season.
The No. 5-ranked Bulldogs had a big first quarter, leading 22-4 at the buzzer. Sweet Home trailed 32-12 at halftime and 40-16 after three quarters.
Alana Silver led the Huskies with eight points. Underwood added six; Kennedi Waldrop, four; Coleman, two; Miller, two; and Hailey Silver, two. Taylor Stricklin led Sutherlin with 19 points.
Looking back at the season, “I’m pretty pleased with what we did, where we ended up,” McNeil said. “We were competing there at the end. It’s that elusive one of four quarters that tends to be problematic.”
It’s a little frustrating, he said, but “a lot of that is an aspect of them not being competitive. When they do start playing, they play as a fairly strong group.”
A young team, the Huskies have a fledgling mindset, he said. The team has only two seniors, exchange student Ria Chiba and late season transfer Towry.
The rest of the team will return next year, he said. Miller, Underwood and Haily Silver will be seniors next year, and they’ll develop into mature, competitive leaders.
“I’m fairly optimistic,” McNeil said. “Especially with the offseason.”
The program’s other difficulty is reaching down into the lower grades, he said, and he plans to work on developing the program down into the sixth-grade and junior high levels this summer, conditioning players and preparing them with the skills and mindset they’ll need in high school. The girls will attend a camp at Western Oregon University. They’ll also hold a high school camp, a summer camp for younger girls and regular open gyms.
It will take a couple of years to extend the program into lower grades while maintaining it at the higher grades, McNeil said, but “next year is going to be the most crucial year.”