By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SCIO, Ore.– 44 years of waiting to get back to the postseason could quiet possibly come with some nerves.
It’s unfamiliar territory for those on the Scio High School Boys Basketball team, but man once they shook off that nervous energy and just play ball, it was the same old game that they’ve been playing all year. Their whole lives.
After weathering the storm in the first quarter, where they led 17-16, the shots kept falling as they did in the first quarter, but their defense falling came around. The Loggers held Warrenton to ten second quarter points that allowed Scio to take a 38-26 lead into the halftime break.
“Overcoming (the nerves) was a huge achievement for us as a team collectively. We’ve put a lot of hard work into this , so it means a lot,” said Carson Avery. “Our teamship, our chemistry that really helped us (tonight).”
Interestingly, the Loggers’ last playoff victory back in 1981 was to the Warriors of Warrenton. It was an overtime victory that went thr way of Scio 65-63.
There was no overtime battle this time around, though, as the Loggers continued to build their lead to over 20 points briefly and led 52-32 after three quarters.
It was their defense that helped them get that separation to grow their lead from that one-point lead after the first quarter to that 20 point spread going into the fourth as Scio went on to win the game 66-44.
“We had a few coaches come out to practice and walk us through our defense. That really helped us focus in on what we needed to do on defense, and we just locked in from there,” said Hunter Courtney. “We just need to come out and play defense, hit shots. I think we can do it personally.
Courtney led Scio in his final home game as a Logger with 29 points and seven three-pointers, Avery contributed another 12 points in the victory as they now head to face the second-seed Pleasant Hill for a chance to go to Coos Bay and the double elimination portion of the 3A State Playoff bracket.
“We just got to come collected and calm. Play calm, cool, and collected and put in a lot of work. That’s all we got to do,” said Avery.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
