By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

STAYTON, Ore.– An outright dog fight to explain the Stayton-North Marion Boys Basketball game would be an understatement to say the least.

If 32 minutes of bruising play and incredible defense with driving offenses wasn’t enough, we added four more that ended with the Eagles pulling out the 59-54 victory over the fourth-ranked Huskies.

The deciding factor at the end?  Free throws.  Free throws by Matt Lindemann and Cade Nau that iced the win in a game that saw its fair share of smart offense around defenses that would even make the Golden State Warriors quiver.

Lindemann and the Stayton Eagles knew the Huskies resume.  13-3 overall record and just coming off a big win over another Top Five team with Philomath to go along with their OSAA rankings entering the game.

But that wasn’t going to slow them down.  They wanted to win.  To prove something to themselves.

“We knew North Marion was a high top team and they were 13-3,” said Lindemann. “We just treated them like Central and came out with fire under us and wanted to prove something for ourselves.  We weren’t going to let them win.”

For North Marion Huskies Head Coach Tully Wagner, he knew it would come down to the tougher team in this brutal, physical team.  For Tuesday Night’s Oregon West Conference match-up, it wasn’t meant to be for his squad.

“They made a few more plays than we did,” he said. “Unfortunately (in) those types of games it comes down to being the tougher team and making plays and they out-toughed us a little bit on the boards and in overtime a little bit.”

At the end of regulation, the Eagles had a chance to put the game away with the basketball underneath their hoop with 0.9 on the clock.

But Kyle Schwarm, who received the inbound pass from Lindemann, saw his lay-up bounce off the rim as time expired with the score knotted at 46.

Schwarm redeem himself with four overtime points, including two late free throws that gave the Eagles a two-point lead.

But with the score tied or either team hosting a brief lead up to this point had something to give.

And it did.

Behind two great defensive stands, Stayton saw Lindemann and Nau go to the line.

Lindemann increased the Stayton lead to four and Nau’s would all but seal the victory for the Eagles.

Nau, and the rest of the audience and players in the gym saw both go in with 25 seconds left in the game as Nau described going into it as just boxing everything out like it was practice.

“When you’re at the line, you try to block all that out and focus on making those free throws,” said Nau.  “Picture you’re at practice just shooting free throws so that’s what me and Matt were doing, just knocking them down.”

For Eagles Head Coach Joe Kiser, he was proud how his team stuck and fought through the adversity and stuck to the plan of more discipline defense.

“I’m just really super proud of the boys and them saying together,” said Kiser. “There were plenty of opportunities to hang their heads and get beat mentally as well.  But they came together and they continued to execute  down the stretch and make good plays.”

The intensity of this particular game started with defensive stands presented by both ends of the court.  By halftime, it was Stayton by one with a lowly 16-15 score after a 5-4 first quarter.

Something that the Eagles set a goal to do, to keep opponents below a certain point total, but even Wagner was surprised how low it was.

“I was happy with our defensive effort in the game.  Only scoring 15 points in a half isn’t typical for us and probably not for them either,” said Wagner.  “But then in the second half, it loosens up a little bit and players made a few more plays on both sides.”

But as the game entered the second half, the offense picked up around the high octane defense.

Stayton had a six-point lead that was met by an 11-4 run by North Marion as both team’s defenses kept the game virtually tied throughout the fourth quarter as overtime loomed.

PHOTO GALLERY (PICTURES BY JEREMY MCDONALD)

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!