Sweet Home’s boys had their chances to catch top-ranked Philomath and ninth-ranked Stayton on the road last week in basketball but fell 57-50 to Philomath Jan. 14 and 67-65 to Stayton Friday.
The game at Stayton came down to the final seconds.
The Huskies led for much of the first half before the hosts started putting points on the board and took a 29-28 lead by halftime. The teams went back and forth early in the third quarter.
By the end of the quarter, Stayton was ahead 45-41 and then built a 10-point lead early in the fourth.
What followed was a “crazy turn of events,” said Coach Drew Emmert.
Sweet Home chipped away at the lead, trailing by six points with 26 seconds left after Hunter Coulter sank a pair of free throws. Pressing the Eagles, the Huskies got a hand on the ball and bounced it out of bounds off Stayton, setting up Casey Tow to hit a three. Coulter drew a foul and hit both shots to bring the Huskies within a point.
The Huskies got the ball again, with Tow scoring and drawing a foul on the shot. Sinking the free throw, the Huskies went ahead 65-63 with 17 seconds left.
With just 4.3 seconds on the clock, Stayton’s Derek Berning sank a jumper just outside the key to tie the game.
Then the Huskies turned the ball over and fouled Berning with 1.1 seconds on the clock. He hit both shots to give the Eagles a 67-65 victory.
“We’ll learn from it,” Emmert said. “Hopefully, we won’t make the same mistake.”
After falling behind, he said, “we kind of picked up our press a bit. We just did what we do better.”
Coulter and Tow both played very well, Emmert said. Coulter led scoring with 26 points, and Tow scored 21.
The team shot well from the three point line, hitting 8-19, 42.1 percent, while Stayton shot 6-14, 42.9 percent. Overall the Huskies shot 39.6 percent and 76 percent from the foul line, and Stayton shot 45.2 percent and 71.9 percent from the free throw line.
Cole Baxter added six points; Aident Tyler, four; Jasper Korn, three; Zach Luttmer, three; and Brayden Keesee, two. Zach Zanona and Kai Bryson played but did not score. Coulter had eight rebounds, and Zanona had five assists.
At Philomath, the Huskies held a lead most of the first quarter, 15-14 at the end of it, and the lead switched back and forth in the second with the two teams tied 28-28 at halftime.
“They kind of had a big third quarter,” Emmert said, and Philomath was ahead 44-38 going into the fourth. The Huskies came back a bit and lost by seven.
“It was good to be in it,” Emmert said. “It would’ve been nice to win.”
The Huskies are still looking for that first big win of the year, the kind of win that makes a statement, Emmert said. “Against these really good teams on the road, you have to play almost a perfect game. We were close.”
Coulter led the game for the Huskies, scoring 17. Tow added 16. The team shot 41.2 percent from the field, while Philomath shot 55.8 percent. From the three-point line, the Huskies went 4-19, while Philomath shot 2-8.
Tyler added seven points; Luttmer, five; Keesee, three; and Bryson, two. Baxter, Korn and Zanona played but did not score. Luttmer led on the boards with eight rebounds, and Tow had five assists.
Friday, the Huskies move 11th-ranked Huskies, 0-3 in league and 9-5 overall, visit 12th-ranked Cascade, 1-1 in league and 11-3 overall, at 7 p.m.
The Cougars play fast, Emmert said. “It should be a pretty good game.”
It’ll be tough to get a win up there, he said, but the Huskies have a good chance.
Sweet Home will travel to Sisters, 0-2 in league and 2-12 overall, on Jan. 28.