By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– Down 35-30 early in the third quarter, sitting in a timeout, the Sprague Boys Basketball team got a motivational talk by one of their coaches.
The Olympians, who led 20-13 after the first quarter, saw Western Christian storm back to lead 31-28 at halftime and currently led the 6A Sprague team into the second half on the final day of the Capitol City Classic at Willamette University.
“Geoff preaches the defensive side of the ball. We did it in the first quarter, but the second quarter, we stepped it up,” said the Pioneers Caleb Brown. “We started to have helpsodez we started to pressure their ball handlers. We put the pressure back on them. That’s our goal. To speed them up and play our game and that’s what we did.”
For Sprague, trailing and mixed in with the motivational talk helped reawaken the Olys. The defense stepped up, got the stops, and turned into baskets that turned that deficit into a 48-40 lead by quarter’s end. An 18-5 run to close out the frame.
“We were better, take advantage of this opportunity and don’t take our foot off the gas,” Sprague’s Jarrod Stanley said of the talk. “Stay with it through the fourth quarter. Going into the fourth quarter, we carried that momentum, and we got it done.”
Western Christian got the score down to 48-45 by the 6:10 mark of the fourth quarter before the Olympians settler back down to close out the 62-50 victory Monday afternoon at the Capitol City Classic.
Stanley led the Olympians with 19 points, Anthony Best (15), Braxton Long (12), and Avery Lohrman (10) scored in double-figures for Sprague
Gavin Hall led Western with 11 points. Parker Reed scored ten for the Pios.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
