By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

STAYTON, Ore.—  Having their recent luck with finishing games, the Stayton Boys Basketball team might be finding their groove finishing games when they wrapped up their non-conference schedule against Tillamook Friday night at home.

“The last thing I asked them when we left before the game was, ‘What do we look like when we’re good.  What do we look like when we’re bad?” Eagle Head Coach Joe Kiser asked his team.  “What is the product that we’re putting on the court?

“So we talked about continuing the effort and do that for 32 minutes and I thought for the most part we did that.”

Faced with a Cheesemaker squad who were throwing caution to the wind down by almost 20, the Eagles stayed the course for a 11-point, 60-49 victory as the Oregon West Conference play is slated to begin Tuesday night.

“I think a lot of it is slowing us down and taking care of the ball,” said Cade Nau.  “Making sure our passes are crisp and getting through.  I think the lead got chipped away because  we play a six-man rotation, so our guys are just getting tired.

“But that’s no excuse, we have to stay hard on defense.”

The Eagles allowed Tillamook to climb back into the game in the first quarter after leading 10-2 early in this one before a buzzer beater by Jerry Daniels, the Stayton Five had a 12-6 lead after one to give them some breathing room.

“In past games, we haven’t had that much intensity and this was our last preseason game,” said Matt Lindemann.  “We wanted great momentum heading into league.  The energy, we kind of gave it our all.

That breathing room became a house in the second frame behind nine points from Nau in the first four minutes of the quarter to give the Eagles a 24-8 lead.

With Kyle Schwarm and Lindemann taking over Nau’s momentum, Stayton capped the second with a Lindemann steal and three-pointer buzzer beater to open a 34-16 halftime lead.

“We came out with a lot of energy,” described Nau in the first half.  “We hit up most of our shots the first half, our defense, we were flying around doing good.”

Though they’re weren’t no more buzzer beaters in thr second half, the Cheesemakers capitalized on a slow Eagles defense to cut the Stayton lead to 15.

The Eagles had to battle for the remainder of the game as they saw they’re dwindling.

“We were trying to push up-tempo but they pressed up, trying to slow us down,” said Lindemann.  “(It) didn’t get us into the momentum we wanted.  So those turnovers, quickly turned into transition points kind of slowed us down.”

But Stayton stayed the course as they saw Lindemann and Daniels hit their Free Throws late to keep the Cheesemakers at bay.

“We had a couple of lapses at times,” said Kiser.  “We had three fouls in the first possession.  That’s definitely not how you want to start your second half but they stayed on and stayed focused and made shots.

With Newport coming to Stayton on Tuesday, the momentum from today’s game was important said Nau.

“We’re coming off a four-game losing streak then we beat Sweet Home and we won tonight so it’s great momentum to bring us into league,” he said.

Tip off of the OWC-Conference opener is 5:30pm.

SCORE BY QUARTER        1              2              3              4              —             T

CHEESEMAKERS                                6              10           15           18           —             49

EAGLES                                 12           24           11           13           —             60

STAYTON-  Lindeman, M.  14, Schwarm, K. 14.  Nau, C 9.  St. Clair, E.  6.  Diehl, B.  5.  Weeks, C 4.

PHOTO GALLERY (PICTURES BY JEREMY MCDONALD)

STAYTON GIRLS STORY VERSUS TILLAMOOK:  https://jmcdonaldmedia.com/2016/01/15/lady-eagles-soar-into-owc-play-with-71-39-win-on-tillamook/

Jeremy McDonald is a professional sports journalist in the Salem/Portland area and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalist in Oregon with B.S. degrees from Southern Oregon University in Journalism (2011) and Health/PE (2013).  Got a story idea? Email him at jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com or on Twitter at @J_McDonald81!

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