By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

AURORA, Ore.–  This was a special moment for the North Marion Girls Basketball as they closed out their first first league win of the season, defeating Sweet Home 54-39 to do so in Oregon West Conference play Tuesday evening at North Marion High School.  Snapping a league losing streak at nine as they came together and battled as they initially trailed 12-11 after the first quarter to the traveling Huskie squad that they were facing.

They were playing as one unit.  Fighting.  Clawing.  Scrapping all together as they slowly started to piece together a run and used an 16-8 advantage to take a 27-20 lead going into the waning moments of the first half and a 27-22 lead into the halftime break.

“We all work really hard, and when we keep that energy up, work as a team….everything is like a stream and we’re all connected.  If one of us is down, then all of us are going to go down,” Brooklyn Curths said. “If we keep our heads up and don’t let any losses bring us down, we’ll be fine.”

Sweet Home didn’t back down in the second half with the squad bringing it back to 32-28 in the third quarter.  Challenging the North Marion squad to hang onto that lead as they put the home Huskies feet to the fire to do so.

And it was as if the squad knocked off the cobwebs from those North Marion teams of years past under Trevor Bodine because they began to pull it back together.  The squad started to play sharper a bit more and a bit more strongly, using a 10-0 run to take a 42-28 lead with 4:12 remaining in the game.  Going 7-for-15 at the free throw line helped cushion the lead for sure, but they were sprinkling in a few baskets in the second half.

That run helped give the squad some confidence and some momentum coming down the stretch that saw the North Marion Huskies hold a slight 12-11 advantage in those final four minutes and twelve seconds of the contest.

“We’ve been coming together as a team..  The last few games, we went up against some pretty competitive teams.  It’s important for us to keep improving every game.  Our team has been focusing on family and we’ve been helping each other get better.  Positive talk, positive everything,” Ally Coulombe said.

Ally Coulombe scored 15 points in the win, Lexie Briggs added 14 points and Curths contributed  12 points with North Marion hosting Newport on Thursday.  Brooke Burke scored 28 points to lead the Sweet Home Huskies and all scorers Tuesday as Sweet Home host Stayton Thursday at home.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald