By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SCIO, Ore.– The Scio Boys Basketball team rose to the occasion Monday night in their PacWest Conference opener against Dayton. Turning some heads perhaps that they could once again contend in the league playoffs and perhaps get over the hump and reach the 3A State Playoffs later this season.
Entering the game against the Pirates 3-1 on the year, they on more than one occasion, rallied from a respectable deficit to make things interesting on the other side of their run. Down 14-6 in the first quarter, they tied it at 16 during the second quarter and even led at certain points coming into halftime. Dayton would take a 32-28 halftime lead over the Loggers with the Pirates closing out the half on a 5-1 stretch in the half’s final 20 seconds.
“It’s intense, it’s rough, but you got to power through with your teammates behind you,” said Scio’s Zane Whisenhunt of the game.
The Pirates would put the heat of the fire even higher to the feet of Scio to execute better in the second half. Scio had gotten Lane Garrison into foul trouble and the same with Tanner Gentry to change up Dayton’s gameplan a bit. The Loggers made it difficult for Clyde Rosenberg to score, all 11 of his first half points were contested.
That was, until Rosenberg turned into a modern-day Shaq in the third quarter and put his team on his back. The 6-foot-7 senior couldn’t miss. From three, in the post, at the line, Rosenberg scored 19 of his 38 points to swing momentum into the favor of Dayton. The Pirates pushed their lead to double-digits twice in the frame against Scio and were looking to have calmed down the Loggers in this one leading 54-42 after three quarters.
Besides Rosenberg’s offensive output, it was the reminder of doing their fundamentals and to play for each other that Head Coach Ron Hop reminded them during halftime that motivated them coming out of the halftime break that led to the second half burst.
“Just to remember our fundamentals and just to play smart. Just remember that we’re doing it for each other,” Rosenberg said. “It was big, especially with Lane and Tanner fouled out, I think everyone stepped it up. I’m proud of the energy that we had.”
Scio wasn’t done yet, and with them getting Garrison and Gentry to foul out midway through the fourth quarter, the Loggers took full advantage of Dayton being down two of their starters. They began to chip away at the deficit prior to that, but the two Pirates guards exiting the game put Scio on the fast lane back in the game as that 56-42 deficit in the opening minute of the fourth, quickly became a 64-61 deficit with 1:23 left in the game.
“We have a great team, we all bring each other up. To me, we’re all captains, we’re all great, we’re all a great team. We work with each other, we work for each other, we’re all one,” said Whisenhunt. “It’s a team effort, all of us, all of us are one. We bring each other up. We came out with great effort, but they came out with the win at the end. We need to work on more defense like that, that’ll be big for us.”
Dayton clutched up with a late Austin Bodenhamer and followed that up with a few free throws to improve to 3-3 on the year and 1-0 in PacWest Conference play.
“Our effort has gotten a lot better since the start of the season. When we start playing smarter, things are just going to get easier for us,” Rosenberg said.
Gentry scored 14 points for Dayton. Rhordan Meadows led the Loggers with 12 points, Carson Avery scored 11, Hunter Courtney and Brycen Zosel each scored 10 in the defeat for Scio.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
