Sweet Home’s boys scored their first basketball victory of the season Thursday night at Estacada, 56-53.
“It was nice to get that monkey off our back and get that first win,” said Coach Drew Emmert. “This time, we found a way to win. We started to compete for four quarters.”
The Huskies built an early lead, 11-7 at the end of the first quarter. By halftime, they were ahead 27-17.
Estacada put on a big run in the third quarter, Emmert said, tying the Huskies 39-39. The hosts took a two-point lead, but the Huskies played the Rangers even through the fourth and pulled away in the last three minutes when Logan Kline hit a big three-pointer.
“Once we got our lead, we just played solid D, where they couldn’t score,” Emmert said.
Daniel Virtue led scoring with 16 points. Jordan McDaniel led Estacada with 11.
“It was awesome to get our first win,” Emmert said. “We’re starting to come together and figure out some things.”
The Huskies are 1-5. They were scheduled to play at Siuslaw Monday and against Molalla in a Stayton tournament Dec. 28-30.
Sweet Home 11 16 11 18 – 56
Estacada 7 10 22 14 – 53
Sweet Home scoring: Daniel Virtue 16, Logan Kline 11, Jake Bangot 11, Tyler Plebuch 6, Keanu Aiona 5, Justin Tow 5, Keegan Holly.
Estacada scoring: Jordan McDaniel 11, Albrecht 10, Sittner 8, Kirchhofer 8, Kravets 8, Blankenship 5, Sheridan 2, James.
Cascade 60, Sweet Home 44
The Huskies lost 60-44 to Cascade at home Friday evening.
“Cascade is a really good team. They’re a team that has a really good chance at going to the tournament and making a run,” Emmert said.
Sweet Home got behind early, trailing 15-8 after a quarter and 29-20 at halftime.
“We didn’t figure out their zone in the first half,” Emmert said. The Cougars ran a 1-3-1, like a lot of other teams so far this year. All of them are running it a bit differently, though. Taft didn’t trap with it, while Cascade did.
The Cougars extended their lead to 46-34 in the third, and then the Huskies offense started clicking better.
But they couldn’t get the stops to slow Cascade down and catch up, Emmert said.
Virtue led Sweet Home scoring with 15 points, while Garrett Coffey led the Cougars with 19.
On Dec. 15, the Huskies lost to Yamhill-Carlton 52-48.
Cascade 15 14 17 14 – 60
Sweet Home 8 12 14 12 – 46
Cascade scoring: Garrett Coffy 19, Schirmer 10, Walker 8, Harris 4, Thomas 4, Ball 4, Bjorklund 3, Gilbert 2, Beckmann 2, Braff, Vuilleumier.
Sweet Home scoring: Virtue 15, Aiona 7, Tow 6, Plebuch 6, Justin Carpenter 5, Nick Rodgers 4, Nick Marler 3, Bangot 1, Jesus Patricio, Kline, Tristan Graham.