Sisters 55
Sweet Home 47
Sisters defeated the Husky girls basketball team 55-47 in a tiebreaker for conference playoffs Thursday night at Stayton.
The tiebreaker sent Sisters on to the fifth-place spot in conference playoffs.
“We came out real strong,” Coach Jason Gorham said. “We were playing well, then they put their press on us. We struggled against it.”
Sisters converted several forced turnovers into buckets and took a 29-19 lead by halftime.
The Huskies battled back, at several points getting within eight points. They couldn’t quite make it over that hump.
Teresa Lewis led Husky scoring with 21 points. Lei Himan-Teves added eight; Chelsea Hackworth, six; Rachel Gaskey and Kendra Greene, five; Cindy Jones, two; and Ashley Wall, 1. Yost led Sisters with 17 points.
“From where we were starting out and what we were trying to accomplish, I think we did a good job,” Coach Gorham said of the season. The team improved its fundamental abilities and had an excellent attitude all season long.
“I think it’s definitely a step in the right direction,” Coach Gorham said. The team loses seniors Lewis and Jones and returns young again. The rest of the team will work hard over the summer with a 15-game June season followed by team camp in July.
They will continue to focus on fundamentals at every level of the program, including the winless junior varsity level and the five-win freshman team. With fundamentals down at lower levels, the coaching staff can begin working on team concepts when they start playing varsity ball.
The freshmen, especially, made some huge improvements this year, Coach Gorham said. They lost many of their games by only a point.
“If our fundamentals can improve, then we can start working on some other basketball skills,” Coach Gorham said. Step by step, the team is getting there.
Next year, this team will have varsity experience under its belt, Coach Gorham said, so he anticipates some improvement in the win-loss columns. It may not be huge, but he anticipates some definite improvement next year.
Lewis was selected to play in the Linn-Benton All-Stars game this month.