Cody Cannon
For The New Era
The Sweet Home Huskies showed that they still do have fight in them by running over Junction City 59-34 this past Friday to open league boys basketball.
“They just came out ready to play,” said Coach Tim Porter. “It was our first league game and they were absolutely sensational.”
The Huskies started off the first quarter with shot after shot, steal after steal and rebound after rebound taking a 20-5 lead right out of the gate.
“We did a really good job with our full-court defense,” Porter said. “We got some easy points because of it. I think over-all we were just defensively tough. We made it hard for them to score and didn’t give up many points until the second half. We just played our defense and our offense like we should and everything went into place.”
Throughout the second quarter Junction City started to catch up getting some of our rebounds, but the Huskies seemed persistent and kept stealing the ball as if it was gold-plated. At the half, the Huskies were still advancing their lead, and Junction City trailed 37-20.
Once the second half got under way the game became more even. Throughout the third quarter the Huskies had foul trouble, and their scoring slowed down. The Huskies led 45-26 at the end of the quarter.
Once the fourth quarter got under way the Huskies’ fire was lit again, nailing three point shots left and right and making the court their own.
“Boy, we had a bunch,” Porter said about key players. “Grant Kauffman just went off in the first quarter and got a bunch of points. Hunter (Jutte) did a good job. Christian (Porter) did a good job. Bryce Daniels did a good job, but I can’t identify a single player who did better than the other. They all did an amazing job.”
This was an improvement from their previous game on Jan. 8, a 70-54 loss to Philomath, Porter said.
“We didn’t play as good a defense as we did tonight. That was the main reason we lost Tuesday’s game.”
The Huskies trailed 16-7 after one and 34-22 at halftime. Philomath poured it on in the third to lead the Huskies 54-29 and when the Huskies finally started pouring in the points, outscoring the hosts 25-16 in the final period, it was too little too late.
Kauffman did not play against Philomath.
Porter said he was proud of all his players and hopes they can keep up this pace during their next games.
Junction City 11 9 6 11 – 37
Sweet Home 24 13 8 14 – 59
Junction City scoring: Will Galt 11, Locke 7, Kaiser 6, Seitz 3, Brown 3, Walker 3, Osborn 2, Vanv Ras 2, Raffin.
Sweet Home scoring: Grant Kauffman 17, Bryce Daniels 11, Hunter Jutte 10, Austin Dixon 9, Kyle Rose 5, Christian Porter 4, Jason Sarter 3, Keyler Gaskey, Kevin Seiber, Chace Hutchins, Ryan Adams.
Philomath 16 18 20 16 – 70
Sweet Home 7 15 7 25 – 54
Philomath scoring: DeSaulnier 24, Nash 20, Noble 9, Nelson 9, Budding 4, Houck 2, Markley 2, K. bennett, S. Bennett, Lehman, Thomas, Chambers.
Sweet Home scoring: Daniels 21, Porter 11, Jutte 8, Dixon 5, Rose 5, Gaskey 2, Sarter 2, Seiber, Hutchins, Adams..