By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SCIO, Ore.– For Scio, it came down to their defense to shut down the charging Dayton squad that they were facing Monday night.
Both teams were closing out the first loop through PacWest Conference play and were looking to enter the second half of league with momentum as both squads were tied for fifth-place in the conference standings entering the game.
Entering the final minute of the third quarter, the Loggers led the Pirates 35-27, only to see Dayton rally the ships and quickly get back into the game 90 seconds into the fourth quarter. A 6-1 run turned an eight-point deficit into a 36-33 deficit with 6:28 left in the game.
And for about the next minute-and-a-half, the Pirates and the Loggers just traded blows with one another. Dayton wanted to continue to build some momentum on their front, having won three of their previous five games entering Monday’s game since PacWest Conference play resumed back on January 5. Scio was looking to winning streak to three and were looking for their fourth win in their last six league games since the New Year started. And with 4:16 left in the game, it was a 40-37 game in favor of Scio.
It did seem like a little bit of deja vu or sorts with this run that the Pirates were on.
Earlier in the game the Loggers came back from eight points down to eventually build that eight-point lead late in the third quarter, but here was Dayton looking to return the favor.
“It’s awesome to see the energy that we had tonight. Going down, and then coming back, going down, coming back. I think it’s good for us,” said Dayton’s Tanner Gentry. “We were hoping to build some momentum for the second half to get more wins in the second half of the season. I think our ball movement needs to be better and we’ll start winning some more games.”
“It was an absolute battle. Both sides. It was a defensive game. It was a low scoring game, which means our defense stepped up, their defense stepped up. We were just lucky enough to pull off on the offensive end,” adds Scio’s Brycen Zoel.
Scio’s defense continued to rise to the occasion. They did all the little things needed to be done to keep Dayton from completing the comeback. Their energy stayed high to aid towards that as well.
Over the course of the final 4:16 minutes of the game, the Loggers held the Pirates to two points while their offense slowly began to give them some breathing room in what would become an 52-39 victory to improve to 4-4 on the league season.
“We won that game because of defense, we didn’t play good offense at all in that game. Our defense was what won us that game,” said Scio’s Rhordan Meadows. “If we can keep it up, we could win out. That’s a really big win. Take that and run with it.”
Zosel led the Loggers with 17 points with Meadows contributing another 16 points in the win. Gentry led the Pirates with 15 points and Asher Maxwell contributed another seven points as Dayton will host Salem Academy on Wednesday. Scio will host Taft on Wednesday,
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
