SWEET HOME, OR – The Sutherlin girls ran away from Sweet Home 49-10 on Tuesday, for their 20th win of the season and stayed perfect in the Sky-Em League. The Sutherlin boys had a much harder time, but pulled away in the fourth quarter to beat the Huskies 46-30 and hold on to slim hopes of making the state playoffs.

The Lady Bulldogs scored 5 seconds into the game and ran away from the Lady Huskies. They led 15-1 after a quarter and built that to 34-5 at the half.
Sophomore Harley Baker led the scoring with 17 points, including a pair of three-pointers. Junior Taylor Stricklin and senior Kayce Mock both had 16. Mock also had a pair of threes and Stricklin had one 3-pointer.
Sutherlin improved to 7-0 in the league and 20-1 overall and despite winning their last two games by 59 and 39 points and not having lost to an Oregon team in three years, their rating went down from number 3 to number 6. They’ll need to finish in the top 8 to get a home game in the first round of the playoffs. If they win Friday at Elmira, they’ll clinch their 5th straight league title, and 2nd straight Sky-Em League championship.
The Sutherlin boys are hanging onto slim playoff hopes, after they came from behind and beat Sweet Home for the second time this season.  They trailed 10-5 after one and pulled to within two at the half.  In the third quarter Scout Meyer came off the bench to hit a pair of three pointers. That gave the Bulldogs an eight-point lead at 28-20 and they finished the period with a five-point lead. In the 4th quarter Sutherlin held the Huskies to just two points and made 11 of 14 free throws in the period to win 46-30. Jackson Shelton had 18 points with three 3-pointers and 7 of 8 from the line.
The boys move into a tie for 3rd with Sisters at 3-4, and they are two games out of 2nd place with three games left to play.  They are now 11-10 for the season and ranked 23rd in the OSAA power rankings.
The Sutherlin boys and girls go to Elmira on Friday night to play the Falcons.  You can hear both games on i101fm and 541Radio.com, with the pre-game at 5:30 p.m. and tipoff at 5:45 p.m. from Elmira High School.
– Dan Bain