Outlaws face tough teams at holiday tourney

The boy's basketball team hosted their annual Holiday Tournament December 27-29, featuring three of the top 4A teams in the state, including Sisters, Seaside and Philomath.

Sisters opened the tourney against Burns, who entered with an 8-2 record. The Outlaws jumped out early, and at the close of the first quarter held a 20-6 lead. Sisters' defense was full of great energy and they ran the court well in transition. At the half the Outlaws had pulled to a 41-11 advantage.

The bench got to contribute for most of the second half, and junior varsity players were able to play most of the fourth quarter.

Chase Goff led the Outlaws in scoring with 18 points, followed by Eli Harrison with 17. John Erickson put up 10 points, and Jalen Miller added eight.

Seaside was the Outlaws' next opponent, and they proved to be tough from the start. Sisters played a close first quarter and were up by one at 10-9 at the close of the period. From that point on, Seaside took control of the contest.

Coach Rand Runco said, "They play very physical, hard defense and are very patient on offense and don't make many errors. We went down early and were out of rhythm the entire game. It was a frustrating game with poor execution on our part, and we were plagued by turnovers, with more than 20 in the game."

Despite the difficulty, the Outlaws hung in there and had a chance to close the gap to within five in the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, Sisters couldn't fix the problem they were having with turnovers and shot themselves in the foot every time they started a run. The final score was 51-39.

"We played hard but just couldn't get it together," stated Runco. "We have to give a lot of credit to the senior-loaded Seaside team. They were patient and took very good shots and controlled the tempo. This was a great pre-season game for us and will help us later in the season."

Erickson had 19 points in the game, Harrison had nine and Goff added five.

In their final game of the tourney, the Outlaws easily defeated Crook County with a final score of 65-37. Sisters came out ready and really executed on offense. They got the ball inside to Harrison, Bryce Alderman and Bryan Boswell early and took it to the Cowboys in the paint.

The Outlaws went up 39-19 at the half. Sisters was patient with their shot selection, had balanced scoring and finished with a great team effort. Erickson finished with 15 points, Harrison scored 14, Boswell recorded 11 and Goff added eight.

Sisters will play at home against Molalla on January 6.