By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
TURNER, Ore.– Once more, the Stayton-Cascade rivlary game lived up to the hype on Tuesday night.
Entering the fourth quarter, both teams were exhausted. Both teams were slugging it out against one another in what became a classic defensive game with the Eagles leading the Cougars 21-19.
“We knew that it was going to be a really competitive game, so as a team we all really wanted to play hard and as a family and in that fourth quarter we really connected, playing hard and playing for each other,” said Stayton’s Zuri Andersen. “I think that’s what brought us over the edge and ended up giving us the win.”
Andersen stepped up big early in the fourth quarter.
Stayton had just taken a 24-21 lead off a Kathryn Samek three-pointer at the 6:32 mark when Anderson stepped up with six-straight points of her own to turn that 24-21 lead into a 30-21 lead. The lead reached 32-21 with 3:04 left as momentum swung their way as they began to work more of the inside game of their offense after spending the previous part of the game sitting on the perimeter with their mid-range to three-point range shot selections.
“I just knew I had to step up for my team and do what we needed to do. We were shooting a lot of three’s at the beginning and our coach said that we need to score in the paint, so I just tried to find a way and it ended up working, which was great,” said Andersen
Over the final 3:04 of the game, the lead of the Eagles dipped below ten once. It was a nine-point game with 59.4 left after a Cassidy Crabtree basket before Stayton pushed their lead back to double-figures to close out the game and handing the Cougars their first league defeat of the season.
Andersen and Kathryn Samek both led the Eagles with ten points. The duo combined for 13 points in the fourth quarter in the 38-29 victory on the road.
“At the beginning, it was very neck-and-neck. And then towards the end, we started to slack off,” starts Cascade’s Rozalynn Schmunk. “It really taught as a lot. We learned a lot from that game and we can only take those things that we learned and get better from them and use those things in the future.”
Schmunk led the Cougars with 11 points and six rebounds as Cascade will look to rebound on Friday against Newport. Stayton will host Sweet Home on Friday.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
