Sweet Home’s boys basketball team wasted no time getting back on the court after the Christmas holiday, heading off by bus Dec. 26 on a four-hour trip to Astoria, to compete in the Vince Dulcich Tournament.
The boys struggled and played poorly during their first match on Thursday, resulting in a 65-33 loss against Astoria.
“Thursday night we started off horrible,” Head Coach Drew Emmert said. “We showed up with low energy and Astoria’s players were the opposite.”
Sweet Home was quickly down 15 points after the first quarter. The game’s top scorer, senior Conner Pace, who “did well under the hoop,” attempted to keep the game alive, along with his teammates.
The boys kept grinding and gained momentum, and got the point production rolling. Pace dropped 19 points, while sophomore Brayden McClure’s 12 helped, but Sweet Home kept stumbling on some key plays, which resulted in the loss.
“We had some good stretches, Emmert said, “but we didn’t play consistent enough to come back.”
On the second day of the three-day event, the Huskies faced Yamhill-Carlton, which pulled away with a 43-34 win.
Going into the game, Emmert said he felt this was going to be a good matchup. He had high hopes for Sweet Home to pull out a W.
“Friday we played YC, which was a game I felt we should have won,” he said. The teams stayed in a tight competition throughout the first half, but in the second half things started to fall apart.
“Jason had a few big threes off the bench and it gave us a spark,” Emmert said.
While Funk’s efforts fanned the flames for Sweet Home, it wasn’t enough.
The Huskies, as a whole, couldn’t find the net and the Tigers took advantage, and they played a better offense, he said.
“They packed the paint,” Emmert said. “It was a close game, we just struggled to put the ball in the hoop.”
On Saturday, Dec. 28, the boys faced St. Helens, which came into the match-up with a 4-4 mark as the top team in the Cowapa League. Sweet Home came away on the losing end of the 61-40 score.
“Saturday we played a very scrappy St. Helens team.” Emmert said, noting that the Lions washed out Yamhill-Carlton by 40 the day before. So going into this matchup the Huskies knew they needed to stay on their guard and bring the “high energy” Emmert said he continues to preach during practices.
While Sweet Home brought the energy, they lacked a strong offense against the “scrappy” St Helens defense.
“We played really hard and stayed with them most of the game,” Emmert said. “We just had too many turnovers and they pulled away in the second half.”
The Huskies’ next game will be a rematch against St. Helens Tuesday, Jan. 7. Sweet Home will have home court advantage.
“We play them again at home next week,” Emmert said. He said that since the Huskies will not be playing any games this coming week, they will work on some strategies to hopefully eliminate a lot of problems that plagued them last week.
The Huskies basketball teams continue to show their growth; staying competitive shows the grit and hard work they are building as a young team. Seniors Josh Aker, Jason Funk and Connor Pace are continuing to lead at the helm as they work together to build up the team that will likely be playing together for the next couple of years.
“I think if we clean up our turnovers and eliminate a few breakdowns defensively, we will have a good shot against St. Helens next Tuesday,” Emmert said. The Huskies will then host Madras (7-1 at press time) Friday, Dec. 10.