Woodburn Independent Online

Huskies prevail over Molalla, lock up a state-playoff berth

Strong fourth quarter propels North Marion to road victory

• By: Garrett Rudolph  
• Published: 2/15/2010 11:54:14 AM

MOLALLA — The North Marion boys basketball team can check one thing off of its list of goals for the season.

With Tuesday's 55-38 win over Molalla at Molalla High School, North Marion has clinched its first state-playoff berth since 2006.

However, for coach Tony Merrill and the Huskies, their goals don't end there.

Now, the team sets its sights on securing sole possession of the Capital Conference title for just the second time in school history, and first since 1983. The Huskies were co-conference champions in 2006.

With three games remaining on the schedule, North Marion holds a one-game lead over Cascade for first place.

"We're where we wanted to be," said Merrill. "We'd like to finish it out and see if we can get a league championship. I know that means a lot to everybody at the school, so we’re in good position to do that, but we’ve got to get a couple more (wins) here.”

Against Molalla, Merrill said the team did a good job of getting the ball inside and taking advantage of mismatches in size, as Adam Hayden led the team with 15 points, followed by Kelly Christensen’s 12 and Josh Turner’s 11.

“We stuck to what we wanted to do, and I thought the guys were very good at executing in the half court, getting it to where we wanted to get it,” said Merrill. “We feasted on the inside pretty much the entire game. They just do a good job of sticking to what they know works.”

He said the Huskies were a little impatient in the early going, which allowed the Indians to hang around early. The Huskies led by seven points heading into the fourth quarter, before turning the game into a blowout by closing out the contest on a 17-5 run.

Merrill said the team’s depth and willingness to share the basketball gave North Marion an advantage as the game wore on.

“They do a very good job sharing the ball. They’re very unselfish and they make a lot of good passes, where they’ll pass up an open jump shot for a lay-in. … They’re more concerned about getting the best shot we can, rather than trying to prop up individual statistics,” said Merrill.

“I think it’s a little harder to game-plan for us, because we have a lot of different guys that can score, and guys that can post inside, and then we also have some guys that can shoot the 3-point shot. So, it’s been difficult, I think, for teams to take away what we do offensively, just because we’ve been fairly versatile this year.”

Nathan Summers scored seven points, Zach Borowczak scored six, Zach Goldsby scored four and Sawyer Dady scored two to round out the Huskies’ scoring.

North Marion improved its record to 8-1 in league play (13-8 overall).

On Friday, North Marion hosted La Salle, but details were unavailable. Next week, the Huskies will host Stayton (3-6, 7-14) on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.
 

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