Woodburn Independent Online

Huskies' offense struggles in third-place game at annual tourney

North Marion wins opener, drops final two games of tournament

• By: Garrett Rudolph  
• Published: 12/28/2009 3:55:27 PM

Photo By: Garrett RudolphNorth Marion senior Zach Goldsby splits a pair of defenders during the Huskies' 41-25 loss to Newport Harbor during the team's annual holiday tournament. Goldsby finished the game with eight points.

AURORA — Typically, the North Marion boys basketball team has had no problem putting points on the scoreboard.

That simply wasn’t the case Wednesday night at North Marion High School, as the Huskies were held to their lowest scoring total in coach Tony Merrill’s three-year tenure, in a 41-25 loss to Newport Harbor, from California.

In the first round of the tournament on Monday, North Marion defeated Scappoose, 70-60. In Tuesday’s semifinals, the Huskies lost the game — falling 83-43 to Hudson’s Bay, from Washington — as well as their top offensive player.

North Marion senior Kelly Christensen watched Wednesday’s game from the bench, with crutches, after injuring the top of his foot early in Tuesday’s loss.

While Merrill said the Huskies certainly missed Christensen’s offensive firepower and leadership, that wasn’t the biggest factor in the team’s lack of scoring.

“Kelly brings a lot to the table offensively, so that certainly hurts,” said Merrill, “but by the same token, we should still be able to run our offense, when he’s not in there. We still should be able to run our stuff and get good looks. …. That’s not an excuse to score 25 points.”

The Huskies never scored more than eights points in a quarter on Wednesday, and trailed by as many as 12 points, midway through the third quarter. North Marion finally closed that gap to a 28-22 deficit by the end of the third quarter, but then made just one field goal in the final period. Newport Harbor closed out the game on an 11-3 run.

Merrill said the team never got into an offensive rhythm, and it wasn’t about Newport’s full-court press, more just that he never saw five players all on the same page at the same time.

“I tell the kids, ‘A lot of that’s on me,’” said Merrill. “We’ve got to do a better job of executing and being mentally tough and doing what we know we’re supposed to do. We’re not going to score a lot of points if we don’t run our offense.”

Seniors Zach Goldsby and Josh Turner led the team with eight points apiece.

Turner scored six of the Huskies’ eight points in the third quarter. Goldsby had the team’s lone field goal in the fourth.

Junior Adam Hayden added six points, followed by junior Alonzo Caballero, with two, and senior Jordan McCain, with one.

Merrill said Christensen is expected to miss two to three weeks.

“It’s an injury I think he just has to rest and make sure he gets totally healed up before gets back into it,” he said. “We don’t want to jeopardizes his future for this year and beyond.”

The loss dropped North Marion’s record to 4-5 overall.

Next week, North Marion will compete at the Vince Dulcich Tournament, held at Astoria High School on Dec. 28 and 29, followed by the Huskies’ final non-league game, against top-ranked Central.
Capital Conference play begins Jan. 8 on the road against Estacada.

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