Ken Roberts
For The New Era
Sweet Home finished up the second third of league play in a busy week, defeating Taft but losing to both Philomath and Newport.
The Huskies are currently in fourth place with a 2-6 mark.
“The effort is there,” said coach John Barnes, “but there are so many things for them to learn.”
The other teams are using zone defenses to be able to double up on Jenny Hamn, the Huskies’ primary threat.
“We don’t have consistent outside shooting,” said Barnes, who has been trying to encourage attacking the basket. “We need to have more players with a scorer’s mentality, other than Jenny.”
The goals are basically the same as they face the last portion of the league schedule: compete for four quarters and eliminate the lapses. Barnes would also like to see the team communicate better on defense and become more fluid in their movement.
“Other teams seem smooth; we’re still a bit choppy,” stated Barnes. “We let other teams dictate what is going to happen.”
The Huskies have three days to practice before facing league leading Central for the last time at home on Thursday.
Philomath 43, Sweet Home 25
Philomath consistently passed the ball inside to post players Cassandra Noble and Laura Schaudt to defeat Sweet Home 43-25 on Monday, January 26.
The Huskies, playing without starting point guard Rylee Cole, had difficulty making shots in the first three quarters of the game. Not until the fourth quarter did their offense come alive. With the shooting efforts of Megan Rubidoux and Jenny Hamn, the Huskies closed to within 13. Then both teams went scoreless for three minutes before the Warriors added the final five points.
Sweet Home was outshot at the free throw 13-3, caused by Philomath’s attacking offense and the Huskies penchant for taking outside shots. Rebounding was once again led by Hamn with 10, followed by Rubidoux with six and Paige Niemi with five. Hamn also led the Huskies on defense with two steals, a forced turnover, and 3 blocked shots.
Sweet Home 4 7 3 11 25
Philomath 9 13 10 11 43
Sweet Home: Rubidoux 10, Hamn 9, Makin 2, Niemi 2, Riggs 2
Philomath: Noble 11, Schaudt 9, George 8, S.Grunwald 7, Houk 2, Gunter 2, Thorsness 2, T.Grunwald 2
Sweet Home 41, Taft 19
In a game marked by defense and physicality, the Huskies once again more than doubled the scoring of Taft with a 41-19 victory on Wednesday, January 28.
While Taft employed a 2-3 zone that double-teamed Hamn at the post, the Huskies had trouble finding open shots. Devyn Makin came off the bench with five points to lift Sweet Home to a 7-4 margin in the first quarter.
But the Huskies’ defense also stymied the Tigers throughout the contest, especially their leading scorer, Ashley Taylor, who was limited to just two points. Gradually, Sweet Home pulled away with balanced scoring as nearly every Husky player contributed in the scoring column, led by Hamn’s eight-point effort followed by Rubidoux and Makin with seven each.
In the third quarter, Sweet Home held Taft to just one point. Finally, in the fourth quarter the offense surged with Rubidoux applying the last 7 points to the lopsided win.
Taft’s lone bright spot came at the free throw line where they outscored the Huskies 10-2.
Annie Whitfield had five offensive rebounds and six total for the game while compiling five steals. Hamn was once again in double figures in rebounding with 11, followed closely by her substitute, Dawnita Justham, with eight.
Sweet Home 7 11 6 17 41
Taft 5 5 1 8 19
Sweet Home: Hamn 8, Rubidoux 7, Makin 7, Cole 4, Whitfield 3, Cuilla 3, Niemi 2, Yost 2, Justham 2, Davis 1, Riggs 2, Trewin
Taft: Brandenburg 6, Hagemeister 4, Gray 4, Taylor 2, Hutchinson 2, Vrell 1
Newport 53, Sweet Home 33
Newport’s Amanda Craycraft jumpstarted the Cubs with two three-pointers and a total of ten points in the first quarter to give them a seven-point lead at the end of the first quarter.
From there, Newport slightly outplayed Sweet Home in every quarter to gain the victory. In the first half, the Huskies had difficulty defending the perimeter. Then post player Sam Moore exerted her power inside for 12 points in the second half.
Jenny Hamn scored all 12 Husky points in the fourth quarter on her way to a 20-point, 10-rebound night. Annie Whitfield was the other scoring threat as she tallied nine points with her seven rebounds. Rylee Cole had four steals.
Two Huskies were injured prior to the game. Briana Yost sustained a knee injury in the JV game and Megan Rubidoux, the Huskies’ second leading scorer, re-injured an ankle in warm-ups, an injury that forced her out of a couple games earlier in the season.
Newport also got to the free throw line more often than Sweet Home, sinking eight of 16 while the Huskies were just three of six.
Sweet Home 8 7 6 12 33
Newport 15 12 10 16 53
Sweet Home: Hamn 20, Whitfield 9, Riggs 2, Niemi 2
Newport: Craycraft 18, Moore 14, Johnson 6, Luther 5, Losier 4, Hogan 2, Clark 2, Grimstad 2