By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
AURORA, Ore.– North Marion was under pressure to seal Friday night’s conference win over Cascade.
After trailing by 10, the Cougars cut the deficit to three about midway through the fourth quarter and seized the momentum against North Marion, which was celebrating Senior Night. It was 45-42 at this point in favor of the Huskies, who were looking for their second win of the Oregon West Conference season.
That was when Raef Hammack stepped up for his seniors.
The Sophomore hit a three with 3:56 left in the game that pushed North Marion’s lead back to six, 48-42. Cascade got one of those three points back, but then Hammack scored three more off an And-One that pushed North Marion’s lead to 51-43 with 3:14 left in the contest. The Huskies got another basket about a minute later to make it a 53-43 game as they seemed to swing momentum back into their favor with 1:55 left after they went back up ten.
“We just got to work through it. Less fouls in the paint, we worked through it and rebound everything. We played hard throughout the whole game. We just worked our butts off to win the game. They pushed us to our limit, but we just came out with the ‘W’ and everything like that. We worked hard,” said Hammack.
It was a strong start by North Marion at the start of the game that helped them set the tone for the remainder of the game. They led 13-8 after one and pushed their lead to 13 late into the second quarter, leading 28-20 at the halftime break.
Cascade made its runs — cutting the deficit to six three minutes into the second half, to five with 29 seconds left in the third after trailing by 11, and eventually to three — but the Cougars couldn’t sustain enough consistency to carry that momentum.
“They played great. North Marion played great and it took us out of what we wanted to do. They played their tails off, I don’t know if we ever clicked out there because we seemed out of sync’d all night and we couldn’t get the ball to where we wanted to get it, but hats off to them, they played their tails off,” said Cascade’s Jeff Bennett.
The Huskies, after regaining their ten-point lead, leading 53-43 with 1:55 left in the game, closed out the Cougars down the stretch for the 61-53 victory on Senior Night. Closing out a tight battle with one more game ahead of them against Stayton on Tuesday.
“It was great, we came out hot today and I think that’s what did it today. It feels good. We’ve had a lot of close games. I think we could’ve had every game in this league, but we were on the opposite side of it. So it was good to get this one,” said Miles Gianella, one of North Marion’s three seniors on the team.
Gianella finished with 11 points, Hammack led the Huskies with 19 points. Riley Jones finished with 14 points for the Huskies.
Cascade, who will host Sweet Home on Tuesday, were led by Brody Anundi’s 23 points.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
