The high school boys varsity basketball team opened its season in a big way, beating Salem Academy 66-53 on the road Wednesday and Harrisburg at home 66-30 Friday evening.
“We had a good game against Salem Academy,” said Coach Drew Emmert. “And then we smoked Harrisburg. We played pretty well.”
Salem Academy was ranked sixth in the state in 3A polling, Emmert said, while Harrisburg has been down in recent years.
The Huskies still have a lot of room left for improvement though, as they start facing 4A and Western Oregon Conference teams, Emmert said.
“We looked pretty good for a first week.”
Sweet Home did a really good job pressing full court all game long against both opponents, forcing a ton of turnovers, Emmert said. The Huskies have gone all in on a fast, full-court defense, transitioning to quick points from forced turnovers.
“In both games, we played really fast,” Emmert said. The team is able to do it because the bench is deep.
“We have 10 guys who can play and get serious minutes,” Emmert said. He swaps them out all through the game, and the Huskies are able to stay refreshed.
Against Salem Academy, the Huskies took 16-10 lead after a quarter. Salem Academy closed the lead to 29-26 by halftime.
Halfway through the third quarter, Salem Academy was close, but Sweet Home went on a 17-2 run to take a 54-40.
Being able to stay fresh was key to that, Emmert said.
Against Harrisburg, the Huskies built a 16-3 lead in the first quarter and 42-16 at halftime. The Huskies led 59-31 by the end of the third quarter.
“This is definitely a different style than last year,” Emmert said. “We force a lot of turnovers, but we turn over a lot. We definitely want to clean that up.”
The Huskies also fouled quite a bit against Salem Academy, Emmert said. Salem Academy made 24 points off free throws and another 22 from Sweet Home’s turnovers.
“It’s good to come out of the week with the wins, and it definitely showed stuff we need to work on,” Emmert said.
Casey Tow led the Huskies against Salem Academy with 17 points, while Jake Swanson led against Harrisburg with 16.
Against Salem Academy, Hunter Coulter contributed 11 points; Zach Luttmer, nine; Swanson, 8; Colton Smith, 6; Aiden Tyler, 5; Nate Virtue, five; Cade Gaskey, three; Zach Zanona, one; Jasper Korn, one. Austen Miller played but did not score. Benett Boss led Salem Academy with 15 points.
Against Harrisburg, Virtue contributed 11; Smith, 10; Tow, eight; Gaskey, seven; Tyler, Luttmer, five; three; Korn, two; Coulter, two; Zanona, one; Miller, one. For Harrisburg, Tyler Kelson led with 17 points.
Virtue broke his hand against Harrisburg and will be out four to six weeks.
“That stinks for him,” Emmert said. “That’s tough for us to lose him. We can’t have just one guy step in and do what he does defensively.”
Everyone will have to step up, Emmert said, but “it’s just how sports goes.”