Boys basketball beats Burns in tight contest

The Outlaws earned a 45-42 win over Burns at home on Tuesday, January 7, in a game that was tight to the final whistle. Four days later, the Outlaws suffered a tough 49-24 loss on the road to Gladstone, the No. 2 team from Portland.

In Tuesday's action, the Outlaws played a great game against Burns, who has a very good team with one of the best individual players Sisters has seen all year. Austin Feist is a junior point guard for the Highlanders and according to Coach Rand Runco is a very explosive player that is difficult to handle. Chase Patterson, their 6'6" post, was also a big challenge.

At the end of the first quarter, Burns held a two-point lead with a score of 11-9. The Outlaws tied it up 18-18 at the half and the game was even at the close of the third with a score of 28-28.

In the fourth quarter, Ben Larson stepped up his defense, came up with a huge steal and went the length of the court for a basket to give the Outlaws a two-point lead. The very next possession, Larson stole another pass and again drove the court and had an assist to Hayden Martinez for a three-point play.

Sisters took a seven-point lead, but Feist, with the Outlaws defense all over him, hit a tough three-point shot from the top to bring Burns to within four. Sisters missed their next shot and Feist tore a rebound from the Outlaws, dribbled down court and again with the defense all over him, hit a fade-away jumper from the corner.

The Outlaws got the ball to Connor Schaab, who hit Hayden Martinez up the court. Martinez was fouled and hit two pressure free throws to give Sisters a three-point lead with 3.7 seconds left on the clock. Burns had a full-court attempt that failed, and the Outlaws won by three.

"It was a great game," said Coach Rand Runco. "Our posts, Lane Adams, Tysen Gill, and Nate Kaping, did a terrific job defending their post and Ben Larson and Justin Harrer did a tremendous job containing Feist. It was a great team effort."

Schaab recorded his third game of a double-double with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Martinez recorded 11 points and Justin Harrer contributed six points and eight rebounds.

Runco made note of Connor Schaab, Hayden Martinez and Nate Kaping.

"Connor (junior) and Hayden (sophomore) are really coming on, and they both have natural scoring ability," said Runco. "Hayden has really improved on defense and continues to improve every day. Nate has also been a nice addition to the team especially on defense and rebounding and he improves on offense everyday."

On Saturday, the Outlaws were clobbered by Gladstone.

The Outlaws played good defense the first quarter and were able to break Gladstone's 2-2-1 press, but missed several good shots and went into the second quarter down 11-6.

Gladstone kept the pressure on the Outlaws and continued to extend their lead. The game quickly went out of reach and the Outlaws couldn't recover.

"We tried to be patient against them, but their press and zone were tough for us to break," said Runco. "We shot less than 25 percent from the field and struggled with the zone in the second and third quarters. The boys continued to play hard and battled to the end.

"Sophomores Hayes Moore and Chance Halley had solid minutes and our posts, Adams, Kaping and Gill, defended their post really well," added Runco. "Our defense did a good job and in the half-court we did well. The press was our demise. Gladstone was a very, very tough team and a good challenge."

Schaab led the team with 13 points and five rebounds, and Harrer and Gill pitched in with five boards apiece.

The Outlaws will play top-ranked Cascade on the road on Friday, January 17, and the following Tuesday, January 21, they will face La Pine at home in the first league game of the season.