By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– The Capitol City Classic, more specifically the Tualatin game at the Salem-based tournament, was a good wake-up call for the Sprague Boys Basketball team as they now prepare for the Central Valley Conference slate that’s in front of them.
Head Coach Jordan Graneto challenged his team to step up their effort and their attitude to make sure that they can achieve the goals that they’ve set forth for this season.
“In practice, we’ve been working really hard to step it up to another level and that really helps us out fly around with our press…we started pressing and that’s helped us a lot,” said Long.
And that effort, attitude, and their ability to step up to adversity showed Tuesday evening against Clackamas to close out the preseason slate. The Olympians led the Cavaliers by eight, 34-26. From there, in the second half, Sprague turned up the heat and started to build a double-digit lead on Clackamas.
Mid-way through the third quarter, Sprague led 41-29, and after three, they were up 55-41. The defense was flying and created several stops and a handful of fastbreak opportunities that the Olys were able to capitalize on.
“We wanted to make a statement. Play it like a playoff game and come out and punch it,” said Anthony Best. “We struggled with an in-state team, Tualatin (at the CCC) and that really changed our mindset with the other Metro schools…it showed us how to lock-in on who we have and work on our transition defense, that’s what we struggle on. We’ve gotten a lot better with it for sure.”
Sprague didn’t relinquish their lead as they ended their non-league schedule 7-3 on the year going into Friday’s home league opener with the Celtics with a three-game winning streak.
Jarod Stanley led the Olympians with 25 points. Best contributed 14 points and Long scored another 12 points in the victory; RJ Barhoum led Clackamas with 22 points. Max Martinov scored another 19 for the Cavs. Clackamas closes out their non-league slate Friday at home against West Linn.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
