Two-thirds of the way through a three-game tour of Oregon’s top 10 4A boys basketball teams, the Huskies have two wins under their belt.
The Huskies, now 9-2, defeated Newport 44-41 at home on Friday night and Cascade 46-44 on Jan. 5, climbing to third in the 4A Coaches Poll and OregonLive polls on Monday behind North Bend and Central.
Last week, Sweet Home was ranked fourth in the coaches poll and eighth by OregonLive. They were scheduled to play at top-ranked Central Tuesday night.
Newport was ranked number six and Cascade at 10th in the coaches poll last week. This week, Newport is tied at 10th with LaGrande. Cascade has fallen from the list.
Sweet Home 44, Newport 41
In the second of two tight games, the Huskies edged the Cubs 44-41 in a physically tough game with a strong fourth-quarter performance at the foul line.
“Both teams played tough defense,” said Coach Kostanty Knurowski. “The officials allowed a lot of contact. To score, you had to get some tough buckets in that game.”
The Huskies led by four to six points through most of the first half, but Newport kept closing the gaps.
The Huskies led 10-9 after the first quarter and 20-19 at halftime.
Newport found a rhythm out of the halftime gate while the Huskies struggled and allowed Newport to get ahead by as much as six points.
The Huskies finished the third quarter trailing 32-38.
The Huskies didn’t execute or shoot well that quarter, but they bounced back in the fourth, holding Newport to nine points while scoring 16.
The Huskies didn’t panic, and they knew how hard they would have to play to get the win, Knurowski said.
Brent Moyer did an amazing job guarding Tristan Metcalf, who is an explosive force for the Cubs, Knurowski said. He guarded him as well as anyone ever has.
Up until a three-pointer that turned out to be meaningless, Moyer held Metcalf to seven points, five of them at the beginning of the game.
“The rest of the guys really kind of took his lead on that,” Knurowski said.
On the offensive side, Gavin Kauffman led the Huskies with 14 points, and Drew Emmert added another 13, with a clutch three-pointer in the fourth to break a tie with two or three minutes left in the game.
After that point, the Huskies had quite a few free throws, going 9-13 in the fourth quarter and 9-15 on the game, Knurowski said. Five guys, including two each for Jerome Coleman and Levi Marchbanks, shot free throws in the fourth quarter as Newport started fouling to stop the clock.
Newport 9 10 13 9 €“ 41
SH 10 10 8 16€“ 44
Scoring
Newport €“ Tristan Metcalf, 10; Stuart Burtoldus, 10; Holliday, 8; Palmer, 5; Dunmore, 4; Dincoodie, 2; Hoeft, 2; Bremmer.
Sweet Home €“ Gavin Kauffman, 14; Drew Emmert, 13; Willie Jones, 7; Jerome Coleman, 6; Brent Moyer, 2; Levi Marchbanks, 2; Brock Cota; John Webb.
Sweet Home 46, Cascade 44
The Huskies defeated Cascade 46-44 on the road to kick off their tough schedule.
“Going up there, that’s always a very tough place to play,” Knurowski said. “We came out in the first quarter looking like we hadn’t played a game in awhile.”
The Huskies scored well, but they didn’t really stop the Cascade offense or board well, giving up 18 points, Knurowski said.
The Huskies trailed 18-16 after the first quarter.
“For the rest of the game, we did a pretty good job defensively,” Knurowski said. The Huskies held Cascade to 26 points in the rest of the game. Cascade stepped it up a bit too, and the game was back and forth the whole way.
“They zoned us pretty much the whole game,” Knurowski said. “We haven’t seen much zone to this point, but more than anything, we just didn’t shoot the ball well.”
The Huskies trailed 28-27 at halftime. Cascade scratched out a 37-35 lead by the end of the third, but the Huskies outscored the Cougars 11-7 in the fourth for the win.
The Huskies scored most of those points at the foul line to take the game, Knurowski said, and the Huskies may have wanted the ball a little more than the other team.
“Coleman came off the bench in that game and played with extreme energy, which was good because we didn’t have a lot of that,” Knurowski said. Kauffman made some big plays and shot 4-4 at the free-throw line in the fourth quarter. Toward the end, Jones rebounded extremely well for the Huskies. Moyer hit key free throws down the stretch. In the last minute, the Huskies went up by two when Emmert stole the ball for a layup.
“They came down, and Gavin drew a charge on one of their guards in the last minute,” Knurowski said. That seemed to take the air out of Cascade’s sails.
“Really, it was a team effort,” Knurowski said.
SH 16 11 8 11 €“ 46
Cascade 18 10 9 7 €“ 44
Scoring
Sweet Home: Gavin Kauffman, 20; Drew Emmert, 10; Willie Jones, 6; Jerome Coleman, 5; Brent Moyer, 3; Brock Cota 2; John Webb; Marchbanks; Rubidoux.
Cascade: Ryan Thompson, 17; Williams, 10; Rouse, 10; Pinkerton, 3; Cade, 2; Tuttle, 2; Mongenel; Raney.
This week
The Huskies were scheduled to face Central, 14-0, Tuesday night, finishing their three-game top-10 tour.
From there, they travel to Philomath Friday night, Knurowski said. Philomath is 2-0 in league, losing games to Newport and Central.
The Warriors took Newport to overtime and lost to Central 42-41.
“They’re playing everybody tough,” Knurowski said. That will make a tough week on the road.
Last year, the Huskies stole the second seed for state playoffs from Philomath, he said. That may make Philomath hungry for revenge.
“I have to think their confidence is pretty good, the fact they played two top-10 teams close,” Knurowski said, and Philomath is a tough place to play.
“I don’t anticipate walking in there and not having our hands full,” he said.