Sweet Home 49
Sisters 43
The Husky girls basketball team marked its first win of conference play last week on Tuesday at Sisters, 49-43.
“We played a really good game,” Coach Mark Tyler said. “The girls really hung together.”
The Huskies faced foul trouble extremely early in the game. At four minutes, Teresa Lewis had three fouls. At five minutes into the game, Mallory Carlson had three fouls. Both went to the bench until midway through the third quarter.
“We had people pick up the slack and come through for us,” Coach Tyler said. Katie Reynolds stepped up at post for Carlson. When she got into foul trouble of her own, Cindy Jones filled in.
When Reynolds went into the game, Coach Tyler told her to keep Sisters off the boards, so the Huskies could grab some rebounds. Mahria Zook ended the game with 17 boards. Reynolds had five. Zook’s boards were in large part because Reynolds kept Sisters off the glass. Jones did the same thing, and both Jones and Reynolds scored a basket.
Sisters led 14-13 at the end of the first quarter, and the score was tied at 21 at halftime.
“We came out of the locker room and just really went after them,” Coach Tyler said. The Huskies had a 33-29 lead after three.
They played good defense and kept Sisters shooting from the perimeter, Coach Tyler said, but Sisters couldn’t drop anything from the outside.
Zook led the Huskies with 22 points. Lewis added nine; Carlson, six; Kaci Trask, five; Kendra Greene, three; Jones, two; and Reynolds, two.
“The team was really excited after we came back from Sisters,” Coach Tyler said. “With that win, we were in control of our own fate.”
The Huskies went to face Central Friday night in a game that wasn’t decided until the buzzer sounded and the Huskies trailed 37-36.
The Huskies led 14-11 after the first quarter and 20-15 at halftime. Central scratched out a 28-27 lead by the end of the third quarter.
With 12 seconds left, the game was tied at 34. The Huskies lost the ball on a weak inbounds pass to Zook under the basket.
A Central player must have been thinking she was out of time, Coach Tyler said. She took Central’s final shot just past the half-court line. She missed but drew a foul. She scored all three free throws to lead 37-34.
With about three seconds left, the Huskies ran a play to Zook for a three attempt. She missed the shot. Trask picked up the rebound and scored two without drawing the foul needed to get the win at the foul line.
“We know Central’s not a fast team,” Coach Tyler said. “We wanted to get out here and run. Somewhere in the third, I could see a change in the team.”
They started taking shots they didn’t really want to take and “kind of fell back into a spot we didn’t want to be, like we were before,” Coach Tyler said. The Huskies were running without patience, perhaps a bit too excited, as if they were trying to win the game in the third.
“The girls have played some really good ball this year,” Coach Tyler said. “The last three minutes of that (Molalla) ball game, we had Molalla on their toes.… Hopefully, we’ll have a couple more before the end of the year.”
Zook led the Huskies with 12 points. Carlson scored 10; Trask, seven; Lewis, five; and Greene, two.
They shot 35 percent from the field, which was better than Central, and 73 percent from the free throw line.