Sweet Home boys basketball was unable to get a win at the SCTC Holiday Classic at Stayton High School Dec. 28-30.
The Huskies lost to Molalla 52-38, North Salem 44-32, and Scappoose 50-30.
“This week was tough, as we were missing a few guys and Nathan Aker, our leading scorer, was playing limited minutes on a hurt ankle,” said Head Coach Drew Emmert.
In the first game Molalla (2-5, No. 27) was up on Sweet Home (1-9, No. 31) 18-14 at halftime before pulling away with a big third quarter, in which the Indians outscored Sweet Home 21-10. The Indians outshot the Huskies 37.5% to 32.6% from the field. Sweet Home turned the ball over 17 times while forcing 13.
“We played tough in the first half and then had a bad third quarter where they got a 10 point lead and we couldn’t recover,” Emmert said. “We didn’t shoot the ball very well and it really caught up with us in the third.”
Junior Collin Nicholson led the Huskies in scoring, putting up 11 points on 5-8 shooting. Junior Ethan Delibertis had eight points for the Huskies on 3-3 shooting, while senior Dylan Luttmer and Aker each had six points.
Against North Salem, Sweet Home was up 19-16 at halftime before the 6A Vikings (7-4) came back to win the game in the second half, despite the Huskies outshooting them 35.5% to 30.0% on the day. Sweet Home struggled with turnovers, giving the ball away 19 times while only forcing 10.
“We played a good North Salem team,” Emmert said. “We played extremely well in the first half. We were ahead by three and held a good scoring team to 16 points in the first half.
“In the second half we battled as well, but struggled to score. We didn’t make a three pointer in the game and were 10-24 from the free throw line. It is hard to win games shooting below 50% from free throw. The game looks a lot different if we hit free throws, especially in the second half.”
Delibertis scored 10 points for Sweet Home on 4-6 shooting. Junior Taiden Burger had seven points on 3-4 shooting, while sophomore Josh Aker and senior Riley Korn each had four points.
Against Scappoose (3-8, No. 28) Sweet Home was down 25-21 at the half on the way to the loss. Scappoose outshot Sweet Home 41.9% to 30.2% from the field.
Nicholson scored eight points on 3-5 shooting. Korn and Burger each had six for the Huskies.
“We didn’t play very well,” Emmert said of the game. “We shot poorly again and looked tired. We did a good job breaking their press but didn’t finish very well at the rim.”
“This week was a good learning opportunity for our guys as players got to play different roles with people missing,” Emmert said. “We are still learning how to win and have a lot of work to do.”
This week the Huskies host 3A power Pleasant Hill (9-1) at 7 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 6.