By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SALEM, Ore.–Barlow flexed it’s basketball muscle Sunday afternoon against South Salem.

The Saxons spotted the Bruins a quick 18-2 lead before South drew in Barlow by the midway mark of the second quarter down 26-22 in the 69-52 defeat.  The Bruins pushed their lead to 42-28 by halftime.

Battling as they got the game back down to seven during the third quarter and making Barlow’s offense work for their shots down the stretch, but couldn’t find that other gear as the Bruins did to overcome the early deficit.

“We just had to hustle better on defense and get o(ffensive) boards because they were outboarding us the entire game,” Maddie Dustin said. “Being down like that gets in our heads mentally.  It makes us want to get better.  Being down pushes us to get better to overcome.”

Dustin hit on three of South Salem’s five three-pointers, leading the squad with 21 points.  Halley Barram hit two threes’ while scoring 11 points for the Saxons who started a grueling stretch of games going into the New Year.

South Salem travels to Medford Tuesday to play South Medford before heading to Grant High School for the Pacific Office Automation Holiday Classic on December 28.  The Saxons started that tournament with Annie Wright of Washington that day as this game helped them move in the right direction with those tough games ahead.

“We were definitely a little bit shell-shocked, but as a team it’ll help us figure out what the pace feels like.  The pace will be a little bit quicker.  Our rotations are a little bit slow right now so I think we can get a little bit quicker.  Getting used to that pace will definitely benefit us in the coming games which will be tougher.”

Annie Koenig had a team-high 19 points for Barlow and Kennedie Shuler contributed another 18 for the Bruins who will host Jefferson of Portland Tuesday night.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald