Outlaws place fifth at Sisters Holiday Tournament

The boys basketball squad finished fifth at the annual Sisters Holiday Tournament held Thursday through Saturday, December 28-30.

Sisters started the tourney with a 47-41 win over Estacada on Thursday. The Outlaws started off strong and scored 18 points in the first quarter, and at the half held a 29-21 lead over the Rangers.

The Outlaws kept up the pace in the second half, but Estacada cut their lead to four with about two-and-a-half minutes left in the game. Sisters was able to get stops on defense, and hit their free throws. Isaiah Rush and Jack Berg combined to hit four of five from the line.

Overall, the Outlaws were 13-for-19 from the stripe.

Ty Horner led the team with 16 points, followed by Berg, who recorded 15. Rush scored 10, and Ryan Waddell, Zach Anderson, and Austin Lake each added two.

Coach David Godfrey said, "All in all, we didn't play our best, but we played well enough to win."

On Friday, the Outlaws fell 33-28 to Del Norte (DN), a team from Crescent City, California, in the semi-finals. It was a tight contest from start to finish, and a very physical, defensive game.

At the close of the first period, teams were tied up seven-to-seven. Sisters was down by seven at the half, but came back to go up 25-23 with approximately five minutes left on the clock.

The Outlaws battled hard, but made some mistakes at the end, and only converted three of seven free throws in the quarter. Sisters committed a lane violation when Del Norte missed a free throw, and DN came back and converted both shots.

Late in the game, and down by two, the Outlaws were charged with a technical foul. Del Norte hit their shots and were soon up by five. Time ran out on the clock, and Del Norte recorded the win.

Berg tallied 13 points, Horner had eight, and Anderson finished with three. Taylor Scholl and Rush added two points each.

"We had our chances to win, but came up short," said Godfrey. "It was a good game for us to learn from. We hung in there against a good team, and came back to take the lead. We played well enough on defense, but need to keep getting better on offense, and working together as a team. The players are working hard to improve, so games like this should help us as the season goes on."

On Saturday, the Outlaws lost 45-40 to the Henley Hornets. The loss gave them a fifth-place tourney finish and Henley placed third.

It was a close game the entire way, which started with a 10-10 tie at the end of the first quarter. Teams entered the half with the Outlaws up by four at 21-17.

At the end of the third, the Hornets had captured the lead and were up by four, with a score of 31-27. With about 40 seconds to go in the contest, Sisters trailed by three. The Outlaws missed a couple of shots, and the Hornets hit a couple of free throws to get the win.

Horner led the Outlaws with 12 points, Brad Eagan scored eight, Berg and Anderson each contributed seven, and Rush added

six.

Godfrey said, "This game our players did a better job of moving the ball and finding the open man; and of rebounding both on offense and defense than we did Friday against Del Norte. We shared the ball better too. Henley is a good team, and we competed well with them. Hopefully, we can keep building on things to get better, so that we are playing our best as league begins in a couple of weeks.

The Outlaws next game will be Wednesday, January 3, at Redmond. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.