Outlaws playoff run comes to an end

The Outlaws earned a 65-58 victory in overtime at Baker on Wednesday, March 5, in the first round of the state playoffs, but three days later all hopes of advancing further were dashed as Sisters fell 48-54 at Philomath.

Wednesday's match up at Baker proved to be an exciting game from start to finish. Sisters jumped out early and at the close of the first quarter held a 20-11 lead. The Outlaws controlled the pace of the game and at one point in the first half pushed to a 32-17 lead. The Bulldogs battled to hold their own in the second quarter, and both teams finished with 16 points in the period. At the half Sisters held a 35-27 advantage.

It looked as if it was going to be a fairly easy win for the Outlaws, but the Bulldogs shook things up when they went on a 20-2 run in the second half.

"We weren't doing anything wrong when they (Baker) went on their run; we just couldn't hit our shots," said Jarred Hasskamp. "Whenever we missed they'd hit back-to-back threes."

With the fourth quarter coming to an end, Nate Jackson grabbed the ball for a steal, drove to the basket and scored to pull Sisters to within two. With time running out on the clock, Daniel Ketchum was fouled going to the basket. Ketchum made both shots to send the game into overtime (OT).

The Outlaws kept their momentum going and outscored Baker 10-3 in OT to secure the victory and advance to the second round of the state playoffs.

"I think we wanted the win more," said Hasskamp. "In overtime we showed good leadership on the court, were very determined and we took the advantage from there. We did what we needed to do to win. To come from behind and then win it in OT felt good. It was a very exciting game!"

Three days later the Outlaws suffered a heartbreaking loss at Philomath, which ended their hopes of advancing to the big games at Gill Coliseum.

Sisters was down by only one at the end of the first quarter at 17-18. Both teams scored 12 points in the second period, and Sisters was still only down by one at 29-30 at the half. Philomath's David Sturner scored 20 of his 26 points in the first half.

The Outlaws were outscored 11-6 in the third quarter and just couldn't get the advantage in the fourth period. Sisters lost the contest by six points.

Ketchum led the Outlaw offense with 18 points, and Jackson added 14, including three threes.

Ketchum said: "Overall, we played pretty good. We switched defenses on them, which threw them off for a little bit, but there were a couple of stretches where we missed critical shots. It was back and forth the whole game, and in the end they just came out on top."

The Outlaws ended their season 20-6 overall.