By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

AURORA, Ore.–  Although it took North Marion a quarter, the Huskies did Huskie-like things in their 4A State Play-In game with Cottage Grove.  They overall just executed well after their sluggish start that saw them lead by four in their eventual 87-55 home victory after the first quarter.

Perhaps nerves played a factor into it, with it being their first game of the postseason, but the second quarter was when the hometown North Marion squad came back around and began to make their move.  Turning the then 18-14 lead into a 41-28 halftime lead as they began to clean up the little things along the way to help aid them build some momentum going into the second half.

“We just need to start early, but it was great to go forth and play our basketball with our good transition offense that we do, hit shots and create for others,” Dawson Schrenk said.  “It’s playoff basketball.  It’s win-or-go-home, so we just need to play as hard as we can, as a team and try to get the win every time and it was great to get the win tonight.”

Schrenk finished with 17 points in the win, Cole Hammack had a game-high 29 points for the Huskies who pushed their lead out to 28 going into the fourth quarter as they’ll await the remainder of the 4A State Play-In games to play out Monday for their first-round opponent this next weekend.  Knowing that they are one win from the final site at Forest Grove the second weekend of March.

“After this game I don’t think it’ll happen again because it’s first playoff game, it was just a big game and we weren’t all the way ready from the start, but once we got going, we were good…I was really happy that we got into our groove,” Hammack said.  “We just got to prepare for the next game and try to get to the Elite 8.”

Carter Reilly (14) and Reece Hartenstein (13) each also scored in double-figures for North Marion.  Brennen Murphy led the Lions with 15 points and Cole Kishen scored  another 14 points in Cottage Grove’s season ending defeat

Photos By Jeremy McDonald