Huskies fall at home against Sageview

OTHELLO – The Othello Huskies basketball team took their first loss in the season, falling 63-83 at home to the Sageview Lobos (Pasco). The Huskies now look to learn from this loss as they begin Central Washington Athletic Conference play this weekend. 

“We knew this was going to be a good game,” said Othello senior Syrus Ruiz. “We knew these guys had some talent on their team, but I feel like we really didn’t execute.” 

Othello started strong, getting a nine-point lead over Sageview, but the Lobos came back after making threes to tie the game. Huskies’ senior Quade Gonzalez would respond with one of his own, but the Lobos pulled ahead, ending the quarter 12-15.

The Lobos maintained their momentum through the second quarter as they increased their lead over Othello. Huskies’ sophomore LJ Nunez’s offensive efforts kept the team in the game as he scored nine points out of their 16 scored in the quarter, but the Lobos would outscore by eight to end the half at 28-39. 

In the third quarter, the Huskies would push to try and close the gap, but costly fouls would end up pushing the Lobos further ahead and by the end of the quarter, the Huskies would be behind by 18 points. 

The Huskies would not be kept down by the odds and would put in their biggest push in the fourth quarter with multiple players coming off the bench fresh and ready to put up points. Othello would have their highest scoring quarter of the game with 19 total points, but the Lobos would continue their own offensive push to end the game 63-83. 

“I could tell from the beginning of the game the energy was off,” said Huskies head coach Juan Garcia. “We just have to keep our composure.” 

One of the things that Ruiz said contributed to Tuesday’s loss was that the players did not take their previous practice very seriously. This taught them how important it was for the team to work hard at practice, he said, and they will be pushing themselves hard moving forward. 

“It doesn’t matter who we have up next. We need to always work hard in practice,” he said. “The day before, we didn’t have a good practice and we just kind of slacked thinking, ‘2-0, we’re going to have this easy win,’ and we underestimated them.” 

The Huskies had their greatest struggle on the defensive side of the ball as the team allowed Sageview too many opportunities to score. Garcia said the team will need to learn to start off each matchup with intensity and maintain it throughout the game. 

“We don’t have the luxury to take plays off, we have to play and we just came out flat,” said the coach. 

He said this was a great lesson for Othello to learn early in the season, as it shows that there will be nights that they won’t be on their best game, but what’s important is to pick it back up and look forward to improving the next matchup. Playing in these nonleague games has been a great way to build up the Huskies’ abilities against tough teams Othello wouldn’t normally face, he said.  

Two key takeaways that the Huskies will focus on at practice this week are improving their defense and learning to keep their composure regardless of what is happening in the game. The coach said this will be important this week as the Huskies prepare to play in their first league game of the season. 

“We can’t come out flat against them because it’ll be the same outcome,” said Garcia. 

The Huskies will stay busy on the road this weekend as they face their first league opponent, Toppenish, on Friday at 7 p.m., then head to another nonleague game against Tri-Cities Prep on Saturday at 6 p.m. 

BOX SCORE:  

OTHL: 12-16-16-19: 63 

SGVW: 15-24-23-21: 83 

    Othello senior Syrus Peppinger runs down the court after gaining possession of the ball during Tuesday’s matchup.
  

    Senior Luis Farias Villanueva from OHS stops to pass to a teammate after the opposing Sageview defense puts up a block.
  

    Huskies senior Elijah Vasquez prepares to shoot a free throw during Tuesday’s game against Sageview.
  

    Kingston Valdez, an OHS senior, goes in for a layup in the first half against Sageview on Tuesday.
  

    Sophomore LJ Nunez from the Huskies finds an opening to go for two during Tuesday’s matchup against the Lobos.