Stayton 60
Sweet Home 43
The Huskies and Stayton Eagles switched places at halftime Friday night in the Eagles’ 60-43 win in Sweet Home.
The Eagles struggled against a tough Husky boys defense that left them trailing 17-7 with two minutes left in the first quarter.
The Eagles crept up a little on the Huskies to end the quarter trailing 20-14. The Huskies held off Stayton through the end of the half, leading 32-25.
The Huskies came out and executed their offense, Coach Risen said of the first half. The Huskies played their game.
The two teams traded roles in the second half, when the Eagles put down some key shots to capture a 46-35 lead by the end of the quarter. The Eagles frustrated the Huskies throughout the last quarter to take the win. In the second half, Stayton missed only two shots.
“They were so hot, it was kind of hard for our kids not to get frustrated,” Coach Risen said. “I think the biggest thing is they came out on a roll. We just couldn’t put any stops together.”
“They came out with more intensity than we had,” junior guard Kevin Furry said. “We were kind of laid back” with the comfortable lead the Huskies had built. “We didn’t expect what we got. The first half was really good for us. The second half, we got destroyed. After we started to slip away, our confidence was just gone.”
The Eagles were hot from the field, and that made it seem like nothing was going right for the Huskies, Coach Risen said. “I was proud of our kids because they kept playing through it.”
Furry is sure that the Huskies can defeat Stayton the next time they meet. The Huskies just have to play tough, but for now, the team needs to focus one game at a time. That means they’re looking toward a road trip to Central Friday night.
Furry won’t be playing in that game after injuring his ankle with about three minutes to play against Stayton. Coach Risen believes that he dislocated his ankle, and it popped back in. Furry hopes he’ll be ready to play by next Tuesday.
“The reason it hurts us so much is he’s about 30 percent of our offense,” Coach Risen said.
Looking toward Friday’s game, Central is a “similar kind of team,” Coach Risen said. Stayton has nine seniors who played on last year’s second-place team. Central has eight who played with its fourth-place team.
“They have a lot of experience, a lot of leadership,” Coach Risen said. “It’s a good team. We’re going to have to go in and play well. I think the guys were a little stunned Friday with what happened. I think we all are. The name of the game is execute your stuff.”
To win games, the Huskies need to impose their style, their will on the game, Coach Risen said. The league is just like Coach Risen anticipated going into it last week. Thirteen of last year’s top 15 players were juniors. Now the Capital Conference is laden with talented seniors.
“We know we can play toe-to-toe with anyone in the league,” Coach Risen said. “We went to North Marion (Dec. 9) and imposed our will on the game, and we came out successful.”
Clearly, again, against Stayton, the Huskies did not impose their will for 32 minutes as Stayton turned the tables in the last half, Coach Risen said. “We’ve got to bounce back and get back to doing what we do well.”
The Huskies have adjusted their offense to make do without Furry, Coach Risen said, but the key is imposing the Husky style on the game.
Ryan Cupp led Stayton’s attack with 17 points. For the Huskies, Wes Smith led with 10 points. Nik Walker scored nine; Furry, eight; Josh Bondesen, five; Aaron Hegge, four; Matt Matuszak, two; and Casey Aiello, played but did not score.
Sweet Home 46
North Marion 41
The Huskies defeated North Marion 46-41 on Dec. 9 at North Marion.
We won that one the old-fashioned way,” Coach Risen said, by playing defense and executing the Husky offense. “We played our style. There’s the difference.”
The Huskies led 9-7 after the first quarter, 25-20 at halftime; and 31-29 at the end of the third in the league opener.
The Huskies are 1-1 in league play.
Leading North Marion in scoring was Adam Kraft with 15. Leading the Huskies was Furry with 11. Smith scored 10; Bondesen, nine; Walker, seven; Jake Gaskey, four; Hegge, two; Sam Posthuma, two; Matuszak, one; and Aiello and Brian Seward played but did not score.
The freshman and junior varsity teams won all of their games against North Marion and Stayton.