By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
TIGARD, Ore.– Monday afternoon was a good learning experience for the Dayton Boys Basketball team against one of the top teams in the State in Crane.
Playing without Lane Garrison, who was injured in the Pirates game against Taft back on Friday, the Pirate Boys Basketball are adjusting to life without one of their most reliable players out on the court in Garrison.
“We got a couple of sophomores and a JV kid playing a lot of minutes for us now…It’s going to take us some time for guys to get into different roles,” said Dayton Head Coach Ron Hop. ” And it’s atough one for these guys because you’re throwing them against a team that’s well-coached and very physical and very strong, and they’re really good in what they do.”
The Mustangs, the three-time defending 1A State Champions, jumped out to a 25-11 lead after the first quarter. Crane hit four of their six three-pointers in the game during the opening eight minutes of the game.
It was clean basketball that got the ball rolling and it was that clean basketball that they carried into the halftime break with the Mustangs led 47-18 before Dayton began to piece it together in what would be a 66-45 Crame victory at Westside Christian.
“We were totally out of sync in the first half, and I knew it was going to happen… they’re well coached. It doens’t matter what level you’re at. When you win three State Championships, you’re good. It doesn’t matter what level you are. If you’re good, you’re good,” said Hop.
“We just got to find a way to piece this back together to where guys are comfortable again. High School sports are about confidence, and right now, we’re not playing with much confidence because Lane did a lot for us.
“We don’t have too much time to dwell on ourselves because we got Amity coming up on Wednesday, and we got Scio coming in on Friday. It’s right back in the deep end again, and I hope that our kids have learned something from this that it’s not that big of a deal. They got the skill-set, they just got to have the confidence.”
Clyde Rosenberg led the Pirates with 26 points, Tanner Gentry scored another ejght for Dayton. Cody Siegner led the Mustangs with 19 points.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
