The Dayton Pirates came out to play Saturday night beating the #1 ranked Santiam Christian Eagles. Dayton played an overall great game, they forced Santiam into bad possessions and caused them to turn the ball over a lot. I wouldn’t be too surprised if Sc didn’t turn the ball over 25-30 times it was ugly.
Dayton was led by Braeden Nowlin and Jaysen Howard but a big contributor was Payton Garrison, he did a key role in rebounding many offense boards and converting them into points. Braedan Nowlin was scrappy the whole night, he had a charge in a key part of the game, with 3:35 left in the Third Dayton was ahead by 12 Santiam Christian Guard Zach Baugher drove to the basket and it looked like it was going to be a and 1 opportunity. However it was called a charge, the next possession he hit a three making it a 15 point game essentially taking the game into his own hands.
Going into this game we figured that Santiam Christian would win, but we were wrong, from the start of the game you could tell Dayton wanted it more and Santiam didn’t show up to play. Going into halftime it was only a one-point game with Dayton leading. But in the third Quarter, they were able to push that lead out by causing turnovers and just bad possessions by Sc. Hats off to Dayton they played a great game and did what they needed to do to win the Tournament.
These two great teams might match up again during the Southern Oregon Tournament Dec 28 or the 29 depending on if they both keep winning which is a very high possibility.