By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SALEM, Ore.–  The Sprague Boys Basketball team just kept fighting until the end against Roseburg in their home opener.  Holding leads 17-15 after one, 33-29 at the halftime break even on the Indians Friday evening.  

Even when they were down in the fourth quarter, the Olympians kept it to around five and had rallied from ten points down in the fourth quarter back down to five with 2:40 left in the game down 66-61 in their 73-61 defeat to Roseburg.  It was a test.  A challenge for a Sprague team with next-to-no Varsity experience on their roster entering this year. 

And though they fell by 12, it was that early season test they needed against a squad like the Indians that brought the strength, aggression and tempo they needed to see.

“I know we got it.  Once we get going, we’ll be good.  Just keeping our head up, the second we hit adversity, we kind of flattened out, so just keeping our head up and keep going,” Grayson Long said.

Keeping their heads up and turning this defeat into a positive will be crucial going into their trip to play McDaniel on Tuesday before hosting Southridge next Friday.  Long finished with eight points, Jarod Stanley (13), Liam Spencer (14) scored in double-figures Friday.

Confidence is high going into their next practice however, knowing how much they wanted this particular game, and being able to wipe this defeat away will be just as important as walking into their next game ready to rock-and-roll as they were going into this game with the adversity now to respond after a defeat.

“Coming off that Century win, I knew we wanted this one. We just got to keep working and that’s about it.  It was a really big game for us coming in.  We just got to keep our heads up and keep grinding.  Practice tomorrow, we just got to go all out and wipe the loss and get that next ‘W’,” Stanley said.

Roseburg’s Mykah Mendoza had a game-high 20 points as the Indians travels to North Eugene Tuesday before hosting Crater of Central Point December 13 for their home opener.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald