Boys basketball wins two

The boys basketball team notched two wins this past week to push their league record to 5-3. The Outlaws defeated Junction City (JC) 57- 42 on the road on Tuesday, February 8 and on Friday, February 11, recorded a 70-48 victory at home over Cottage Grove (CG).

Sisters came out full of energy in Tuesday's game against JC and shut the Tigers down. At the end of the first quarter the Outlaws held a commanding 17-3 lead.

Coach Rand Runco said, "Our defense was awesome. Our defense was precise with every person doing their job."

The Tigers played almost even with the Outlaws in the second quarter but at the half Sisters still held a sizeable 31-16 lead.

Sisters went up by 23 at one point in the third quarter and cruised to victory in the final period.

On Friday, the Outlaws earned a big home win over Cottage Grove.

The Lions came into the contest at 18-2 and 7-0 in league. Sisters suffered a big loss to the Lions the first time around so the victory was a huge win for the program.

The Lions are currently the second leading offensive team in the state and average 70 points per game. Sisters is ranked the second defensive team in the state and has been holding teams to fewer than 44 points per game.

According to Runco, something had to give.

The first quarter of the contest was physical and fast-paced. Baskets from Harrison, Erickson and Goff resulted in a 14-4 lead for the Outlaws at the close of the period. Goff capped off the impressive quarter with a great offensive board and put back right at the buzzer.

The second quarter heated up in the last two minutes with the Outlaws scoring 10 quick points. Sisters outscored the Lions 20-12 and at the half held a 34-16 lead.

Harrison posted eight points in the first two minutes of the third quarter to keep the Outlaws' offense going. In the last minute and a half Hodges went a perfect 4/4 from the line, and at the end of the third Sisters was up by 19 at 49-30. The Outlaws continued to control the game, which resulted in a big league win.

Eli Harrison had a great offensive and rebounding game and finished with 23 points and 10 boards. John Erickson hit 10 free throws in the fourth quarter to finish with 21 points and eight boards.

Jordan Hodges put up 11 points and Zech Mickel added seven.

"It was a great program win," Runco said. "The kids had a great week of practice and really focused on their jobs. Cottage Grove runs an impressive dribble drive offense and we worked hard on staying home on their main shooters. This is a very non-traditional defense and took a lot of discipline by our whole team to change our philosophy for this game. We had to pick our poison, and the kids followed through. We held their shooters, who average 35-45 points, to nine points, and did our best one-on-one against their point and post. It worked, and we kept them nearly 20 points below their average."

Sisters is currently 5-3 in Sky-Em and 13-8 overall. The Outlaws were set to honor their seniors at their last home game on Tuesday, February 15, against Elmira. On Friday, February 18, Sisters will wrap up league play at La Pine. Game time is 7:15 p.m.