Lady Outlaws start league with two losses

The Lady Outlaws fell 45-24 to the Stayton Eagles at home in Sisters on Tuesday, January 14, in their first league game of the season, and three days later suffered a heartbreaking 51-46 loss at home to the Sweet Home Huskies.

Sisters and Stayton both started off slow on offense in Tuesday’s matchup, and midway through the quarter the Outlaws were down by one, 2-3, and at the close of the quarter, Sisters trailed by two, 6-8. The Outlaws scored seven points in the second quarter compared to the Eagles, who put up 11, and at the half Sisters was behind 13-19.

In the third quarter, the Outlaws started off great, and pulled to within four points to put the score at 19-23. From there they went cold, failed to score the remainder of the period, and trailed 19-23 at the end of the quarter.

Sisters’ shooting woes continued in the final period, and they were only able to put five points on the scoreboard. The Eagles scored 12 and the Outlaws recorded the loss.

The Outlaws went 0-14 from the three-point line, and were only 9-28 on their two-point attempts.

Ashlynn Moffat led the Outlaws with nine points, and Haleigh Froehlich and Maggie Lutz led the rebounding effort with five boards each. Josie Patton is making her way back from lower back problems that took her out of action earlier in the season, and had a solid all-around performance.

Coach Paul Patton said, “We like to play an up-tempo pace, but were unable to get into our full-court press very often, which allowed Stayton to slow the pace to their liking. Stayton is an experienced team and they execute their system of play very well. If we can stay healthy and quickly apply the lessons learned from games like this we can expect closer scores in the games to come.

Friday’s game against Sweet Home three days later proved to be a heartbreaking loss.

Sisters committed three turnovers at the start of the first quarter and quickly went down 0-5. Ashlynn Moffat scored on an out-of-bounds play to get the Outlaws on the scoreboard, and Payden Petterson followed with a three-pointer that was nothing but net to even the game 5-5. Unfortunately, the Outlaws didn’t score the remainder of the quarter, and the Huskies went on an 11-0 run. At the end of the period the Outlaws trailed 5-16. Sweet Home’s top player, Brooke Burke, scored 11 of the Huskies’ 16 points.

Sisters struggled on offense most of the second quarter, while the Huskies continued to score. Midway through the period Sisters was able to get some points on the board. Both Maggie Lutz and Haleigh Froehlich hit both their free-throw attempts for four points, and in the last minute Maggie Lutz downed a three, and Ila Reid pulled down an offensive board and put it back for two to close out the quarter. At the half the Outlaws had pulled to within eight with the score at

18-26.

The third quarter belonged to the Outlaws as they came out on fire and outscored the Huskies 25-10. Sisters cranked up the full-court pressure and got several steals that led to easy buckets. They also executed their offense well against the Huskies’ zone defense. Moffat and Lutz hit big three-pointers in the first four minutes of the period to give the Outlaws momentum. With two and a half minutes left in the period, Juhree Kizziar dished a nice pass inside to Ila Reid, who made the layup and evened the score 34-34.

The Outlaws continued their scoring spree, while holding the Huskies scoreless the remainder of the period. Kizziar had another nice pass inside to Reid and the Outlaws took their first lead of the game, 36-34. Another pass to Josie Patton under the basket resulted in another lay-in and a plus-one. Patton hit the mark and the Outlaws went up by five. Sisters kept the Huskies at bay, and scored again, this time Reid weaving her way inside the key for the score. Patton dished the ball inside to Reid who made the layup for the final score of the quarter. At the end of three the Outlaws were on top 43-34.

The tide turned in the final period. Sweet Home held the Outlaws scoreless for the first six minutes and went on a 11-0 run and took the lead. On Sisters’ next possession, Maggie Lutz hit a three pointer and Sisters went up by one, 46-45. Sisters fouled and the Huskies hit the one-and-one to regain the lead once again. The Outlaws were unable to score in the final two minutes of the contest, and the Huskies went on to win by five.

Patton said, “The main difference between the last two quarters was a shift in our mindset, going from aggressive and confident to tentative and unsure.”

Junior Ashlynn Moffat commented on the game.

“I’m very proud of our team,” she said. “We started with low energy in the first quarter, and I’m proud we were mentally able to push through. We came back after halftime with more intensity. Even though the outcome wasn’t a win, it shows we have the potential and intensity to compete like that in future games.”

Sisters was to play at home against Newport on Tuesday, January 18. They will host Philomath on Friday.