Outlaws take third place at tournament

The boys basketball team took third place out of eight teams at the Sisters holiday tournament that was held Tuesday through Thursday, December 27-29. Junction City was the tournament champion and Sherwood was runner-up. Madras took fourth, La Salle fifth, Banks sixth, La Pine seventh and Burns eighth.

The Outlaws defeated Banks 65-39 in the tournament opener on Tuesday. Sisters dominated the entire game and according to Coach Rand Runco the Outlaw half-court defense was excellent.

Sisters scored 33 points in the first half and held Banks to just 16 points. The Outlaws outscored Banks in every quarter of the game and finished with a 26-point advantage.

“Our ball pressure really tore them up and they had trouble adapting to that,” said Runco. “Our team defense was awesome. We pressured their perimeter players and prevented them from running their plays.”

Nate Jackson led the team with 18 points and Guy Mount had 11.

On Wednesday, Sisters lost by just three points to the Sherwood Bowmen in a final score of 44-41.

The Outlaws held a 23-21 lead at the half and the score was close the entire game.

“We got a slow third quarter start,” said Runco, “and that was the difference. We got behind and the game came down to shooting and we didn’t make the open shots. We missed many open looks, in fact, two good looks at the end to tie the game.”

The Outlaws shot 75 percent from the free throw line and only 32 percent from the field.

Guy Mount led the team with 14 points. Nate Jackson and Andy Burke had six rebounds each.

On Thursday, the Outlaws defeated La Salle 54-50 to finish third in the tournament.

The game was another close one all the way. At the half Sisters was up 30-22 and once again got a slow third quarter start. The Outlaws fell behind in the fourth quarter and with approximately five minutes remaining in the game, point guard Jeff Fitter was injured and never returned to the game.

Mount was moved to the point guard position and did an excellent job the remainder of the game, scoring eight additional points including going 4-4 from the line.

Runco again commended his players on their great defensive effort. Key rebounds in the fourth quarter came from Jeff Sampson, Brian Knotts and Andy Burke.

Guy Mount led the Outlaws with 13 points and Nate Jackson added 10. Carter Davenport did a nice job on defense and finished with four steals, six deflections and four rebounds.

Of the tournament Runco said, “I thought we competed very well. Our goal was to improve and we did. We played very hard and I was pleased with our effort. Basically, we were just a couple of shots away from playing in the championship game. We need to find our team identity in the next two weeks and start to get in shape.”