Cottage Grove 67, Sweet Home 60
In the first of two overtime losses last week, Sweet Home fell 67-60 to Cottage Grove at home on Feb. 8 in boys basketball.
“We had a really hard week,” said Coach Kostanty Knurowski.
The Huskies held a decent lead late in the game before Cottage Grove dropped into a zone defense, blunting the Husky attack.
After one quarter, the Huskies trailed 15-14. The game was tied at 33-33 at halftime. The Huskies built a 48-41 lead by the end of the third quarter.
At one point, the Huskies led by eight points, Knurowski said. “We just didn’t sustain it obviously.”
Cottage Grove switched to the zone in the fourth quarter, Knurowski said. “It took us out of our attack mode. We tried to force them to come out and defend.”
But the Huskies didn’t do that well, he said. They took a few shots they shouldn’t have, and it disrupted the Huskies rhythm.
The Huskies trailed by one and two points near the end of the game. Gavin Kauffman scored a three-point play to get a one-point lead. Cottage Grove answered with a three-point play. Kauffman hit Taylor Mauch for a bucket to tie the game.
Cody Felkins stopped a Cottage Grove player from scoring in a one-on-one situation as regulation time ended.
In overtime, Cottage Grove scored. The Huskies answered once, but they failed to connect their next possession.
Both Mauch and Kauffman had sustained minor injuries by that point, Knurowski said. Without the team’s two leading scorers, the Huskies weren’t able to overcome Cottage Grove, which was ranked third in the state.
“To Cottage Grove’s credit, they were still undefeated in league,” Knurowski said. “They made plays when they needed to and held their composure to the end.”
Cottage Grove 15 18 8 17 9 – 67
Sweet Home 14 19 15 10 2 – 60
Cottage Grove Scoring: Dustin Hurd 17, Shepherd 15, Maddess 13, Morales 9, Rothermund 9, Gray 2, Miller 2, Dieke, Toureen.
Sweet Home Scoring: Gavin Kauffman 33, Taylor Mauch 12, Cody Felkins 7, Dallas Morgan 4, Jeremy White 4, Paul Kim, Robert Rubidoux, Chris Webb, Brice Vandenberg, Kyle Winslow.
Elmira 56, Sweet Home 55
The Huskies lost a second overtime game 56-55 to Elmira on Friday on the road.
“We led the whole first half,” Knurowski said. In the third quarter, “they came out and took the lead right from the get-go. We had to really scrap to stay in the game.”
The Huskies didn’t execute well down the stretch, he said, with a back-and-forth battle at the end.
Poor performance at the foul line was a problem all night, he said. The Huskies shot 7-16 from the free throw line.
“To be honest, we did not get a whole lot of production, especially in the second half,” Knurowski said. “But we’ll keep our heads up.”
The loss hurt the Huskies for playoffs, Knurowski said. They’re still in it, but they’ve fallen to third, behind Sisters at second and Cottage Grove at first.
The Huskies need one more win to lock down their place, Knurowski said. If Sisters loses a game this week, the Huskies can tie for second. Having defeated Sisters twice, the Huskies would win the second-place slot.
Sisters faces La Pine and Elmira this week, while the Huskies face La Pine and Junction City, Friday.