By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
MILL CITY, Ore.– After starting the season 2-11, the Santiam Boys Basketball team are slowly coming into form entering the final week of the regular season.
Illness and injury plagued the Wolverines to start the season, but once they got healthy and got everyone into a groove, they have flipped the script and have won six of their last eight games. Their recent victory coming on Friday when they defeated Kennedy 58-49 in Tri-River Conference action.
They brought the energy from the start, their five seniors getting the start and got the ball rolling as they built a lead and some early game momentum. From there, they just continued to build as they flew around and held the young Trojan squad they were facing in check from the remainder of the game up at Santiam High School.
“We set that tone by competing and never give up. We can keep the momentum up by playing as a team and sticking together. Not arguing, playing as ‘We Not Me’,” said Colt Twede.
“We started the year really rough, a lot of injuries and sicknesses. We couldn’t get the whole squad going , but once we got our whole squad back and all of our starters back, we started to roll and it’s all been uphill from there,” adds Mason Lindemann.
Issac Martinez led Santiam with 20 points. Ace Areni and Chris Romero each contributed nine points in the win on Friday. Following the victory, Santiam, who are currently sitting in third place in the TRC at 6-4, will close out the regular season on the road at Colton and at Delphian in Sheridan before League Playoffs start after that.
With their recent momentum run, they’re hoping to continue to build off of it as they look to lock-up a spot in the 2A State Playoffs here in the coming weeks.
“We just got to keep rolling with the momentum that we got and that anyone that’s in front of us, we got to take out. If we want to make it all the way, we got to keep playing together. When we play together, we win. There’s not many teams out there that can beat us when we play at our best,” Lindemann said.
The Trojans, who saw Brandon Sucich lead the squad with 21 points, will close out the regular season at Regis in Stayton.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
