Sweet Home 72, Junction City 45
Starting bench players sparked a run that never ended against Junction City at home on Friday night on the way to a 72-45 Husky win over Junction City in boys basketball.
The Huskies started seniors Paul Kim, Jason Rice, Nick Lloyd, Chris Webb and Cody Felkins. Kim, Rice and Lloyd had never started a varsity game before.
The five built a lead in the first three to four minutes of the game, preparing the road for the regular starters to come in and blow open the game.
The Huskies led 15-9 after one quarter and 38-21 at halftime. They led 55-36 at the end of the third quarter.
“It was senior night, so the kids came out pretty fired up, ready to play,” said Coach Kostanty Knurowski. “To be honest, I don’t think they lost their intensity the entire evening.
“It was definitely one of our best games of the year.”
The game had the most contributions from the most people all year, he said. He credited the starters.
“That group came out and set the tone for the entire game,” Knurowski said. That group is “from a little further down the bench. For them to build a lead for some of our regular starters was great to see.”
The team also has three other seniors, Gavin Kauffman, Taylor Mauch and Robert Rubidoux.
“Unfortunately, I couldn’t start all eight of them,” he said, but they started the second half.
With the win, the Huskies finished third seed in the Sky-Em League. They will travel to either Newport or Central. The two teams were scheduled to play Tuesday night in the Oregon West League in the single-game regional playoff. The Huskies play the loser of the game, which finishes second seed.
In the following round of 16, teams are matched based on the Oregon Student Athletic Association’s new power rankings. The eight winners in that round move on to the state tournament at Gill Coliseum.
To reach Gill, the Huskies must win two games.
The Huskies defeated Central by five at a Stayton tournament at the beginning of the basketball season.
They have not seen Newport this year, Knurowski said. It’s the only one of the team’s from the old Val-Co that the Huskies haven’t seen this year.
Junction City 9 12 15 9 – 45
Sweet Home 15 23 17 17 – 72
Junction City Scoring: Britt Bay 17, Straube 11, Nash 7, Eba 4, Smucker 2, Gerdes 2, Dickinson 2, Reerslev, Anderson.
Sweet Home Scoring: Gavin Kauffman 30, Chris Webb 10, Cody Felkins 10, Taylor Mauch 6, Paul Kim 4, Jason Rice 4, Brice Vandenberg 4, Jeremy White 2, Nick Lloyd 2, Dallas Morgan, Justin Rice, Robert Rubidoux, Kyle Winslow, Grant Kauffman.
Sweet Home 59, La Pine 41
After losses to Elmira and Cottage Grove, the Huskies fired back into league play with a tough defense, defeating La Pine 59-41 at home on Feb. 15.
“The kids came out and just played another really good defensive game,” Knurowski said. Their efforts against La Pine and then Junction City were two of their best defensive games all year.
The Huskies held La Pine to 41 total and 14 in the first half, Knurowski said.
It wasn’t the Huskies best offensive effort, he said, as the Huskies had only 26 at halftime.
The Huskies had led 10-6 after the first quarter. They led 47-27 at the end of the third quarter.
“We were led that night by Taylor Mauch,” Knurowski said. “He had 22. That was really good to see. Gavin (Kauffman) finished with nine. That doesn’t happen often.”
La Pine did a nice job defensively against Kauffman, Knurowski said, and he still wasn’t 100 percent after dealing with an ankle injury.
“It was nice to see that he didn’t have to try to do too much,” Knurowski said, and Mauch picked it up working around the basket and being close to the rim all night, with Kauffman firing assist after assist to him.
La Pine 6 8 13 14 – 41
Sweet Home 10 16 21 12 – 59
La Pine Scoring: Pierce 14, Manley 12, O’Casey 5, Lavine 4, Boen 2, Pajunen, 2, Syres 2, Manna, Ebner, Steirebach, Parsons, Smith.
Sweet Home Scoring: Mauch 22, Morgan 9, Ga. Kauffman 9, Felkins 7, Gr. Kaufman 6, White 4, Rubidoux 2, Kim, Lloyd, Webb, Winslow, Ja. Rice, Ju. Rice, Vandenberg.