By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– South Salem had all kinds of emotions in their heartbreaking 69-68 defeat to the 6A defending State Champions in Barlow on Tuesday night at home.
It was a rollercoaster kind of ride to say the least as they, the Saxons, came out firing on all cylinders as they led 20-10 after one quarter. Their shots were falling, their defense did what they had to do to help get South Salem out in front. Then in the second quarter, a whiplash of sorts occured.
Barlow changed up some things on defense, they put the Saxons in unique situations offensively that disrupted their offensive flow and slowed it to an absolute crawl as the Bruins were beginning to find their rhythm offensively.
By halftime the Bruins led 39-30 and at one point in the second half, Barlow led by 16 in the second half and looked as if they were about to firmly plant momentum into their favor.
But then. As if Head Coach Kip Ioane gave his players one of those Mickey speeches to Rocky in those early Rocky Movies, the Saxons got up from the canvas and began to fight back into the game.
By the end of the third quarter, Barlow’s lead was down to nine points. It was 59-48 at this point. And South Salem wasn’t done just yet.
They hung around. With 3:31 left in the game, they were down 66-60 when the Saxons made their final push.
“It’s always hard to come back when you’re down by that much, especially against the defending State Champs. It just kind of shows the kind of team that we are I think,” said Brayden Fleener. “I think we’re going to go far this year and once we tweak a few things, switch a few things around, we’ll be good.”
Fleener had some crucial defensive rebounds and free throws down the stretch in the game, mainly those final 3:31 especially, to help the mojo going into their favor.
“It’s been huge for us. All the small things, it all adds up. In these close games, everything matters. The free throws, the rebounds,” Fleener said.
With 51.2 seconds remaining in the game. The Saxons pulled within one of the Bruins. It was 69-68 at this point following a Sam Johnson free throw.
The crowd that was tame earlier in the half during Barlow’s rally, they were loud and ready to go. South continued their rally, the Bruins were doing whatever they could to keep the surging Saxons from taking the lead.
Defensive stops were crucial, especially in the closing seconds as the Saxons drove to the hoop in the final seconds for the go-ahead shot, but it fell short with four seconds remaining. They quickly fouled to create one more opportunity and send Barlow to the free throw line with two seconds remaining.
Barlow missed their two free throws, the last one was a heave at the basket to burn the remaining time off, but their free throw shooter was called for stepping over the line during the shot that gave South Salem one last crack for the win down one.
Sadly, they couldn’t get a clean shot off in time as they fell to Barlow at home. With one more non-league game in front of them, at Caldera in Bend, the Saxons will look to build off the good from this game into Thursday’s game in preparation for their Central Valley Conference opener next week.
“We did a really good job staying together. We’ve had problems through the last four years of just staying together as a team in late-game situations. I think we did a great job staying together, playing team basketball,” said Brett Gill. “Staying together, not just through the first, the second quarters and stuff like that, but staying together through the late, hard minutes is really encouraging for us. It’s inspiring and I think we’ll do a lot of good this season.”
Gill scored 11 points in the defeat. Teagan Scott led the Saxons with 30 points.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
