MARYSVILLE — Meadowdale girls basketball coach Troy Parker might still be holding his breath.
Marysville Pilchuck had three chances in the final seconds of regulation and three more in the final seconds of overtime to defeat the Mavericks, but came up empty on all six and Meadowdale escaped with a 52-51 victory in a Friday night Wesco crossover game.
“I’m just glad to get out of here with a win,” Parker said. “We felt like we gave a game away right before (Christmas) break and maybe we stole one tonight. It was one of those where I wouldn’t have been surprised if that ball had fallen in for Marysville at the end. This was a tough one for either team to lose.”
The Mavericks jumped out to an 11-7 lead after one quarter, but the Tomahawks took control of the game in the second period. Marysville allowed just four points in the quarter and took a 19-15 lead into the locker room at halftime.
“We went into man (defense) in that quarter and we just clicked and we wanted it,” Tomahawks head coach Julie Martin said. “I think it was just effort and really fighting to want it.”
Parker said that second quarters have been a problem for his team.
“Second quarters have been difficult for us,” Parker said. “If you look at our lines, second quarters our opponents have had the best of us. We’ve had a tendency to get in foul trouble and we lose some flow. I think the biggest issue for us and if you go back and take a look at that, they were pretty dominant on the offensive boards right there and they were able to get some put backs. And we are very impatient on offense at times and that gets us into trouble.”
Meadowdale stayed close for much of the third quarter, but the Tomahawks once again extended their lead late in the period with an 8-0 run led by Jenika Anglim and Jordan Bengen, who scored four points apiece during the run. Marysville had gone from being up just three to looking like it would be up 11 going into the game’s final quarter, but the Tomahawks fouled Mackenzie Bretz with no time left in the quarter and Bretz made both free throws to cut the deficit to 36-27.
The Mavericks came out energized in the fourth quarter and went to a full-court press on defense that seemed to give the Tomahawks problems.
“We are a pretty good pressing team,” Parker said. “I think we have been pretty good about not overusing it. In the past, I think we have overused our press and we’ve been pretty good about judiciously using it and I think you saw a really good example of that. We saved it and we saved it and then we were effective with it.”
The Tomahawks turned the ball over quite a bit when the Mavericks immediately went to the press and though they never quite solved it, they did make some adjustments as the fourth quarter went on.
“They wanted us to rush so that we did have turnovers or did rush shots and things like that,” Martin said. “It was just our composure of, ‘we can do this. We are tall. We can pass it over this stuff. We need to get somebody in the middle.’ Just breaking it was difficult for us which normally it isn’t, so I think that kind of took the wind out of their sails a little bit.”
The Mavericks also were aided by the second-half shooting of Julianne Kossian, who made three 3s after halftime and had a total of five in the game, finishing with 15 points. Alyssa Reuble added 12 for Meadowdale.
But perhaps the biggest performance of the night was made by Madison Parker. The box score shows that she had just six points, but she saved those points for when they mattered most.
She scored her first points of the game on a 3-pointer with 1:32 remaining in regulation that tied the score for the first time since the second quarter. Forty seconds later she gave the Mavs their first lead since the score was 12-9 early in that same quarter. Parker also scored two of the Mavericks four points in the overtime session.
Bengen led the Tomahawks with 21 points and Anglim had 12 for the Tomahawks.
Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on twitter @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com. At Marysville Pilchuck H.S.
Meadowdale11412214—52
Marysville Pilchuck71217123—51
Meadowdale—Keely Hayes 0, Sara Fjortoft 4, Kearstin Franco 2, Angela Birchman 0, Alyssa Reuble 12, Jaclyn Barhoum 0, Julianne Kossian 15, Mackenzie Bretz 9, Madison Parker 6, Ndey Sonko 4. Marysville Pilchuck—Charlee Pilon 4, Megan Owens 0, Abi Otto 5, Jenika Anglim 12, Jordan Bengen 21, Marley Reynolds 6, Binta Bojang 2, Kylie Lopez 1, Stephanie Struthers 0. 3-point goals—Otto 1, Anglim 1, Bengen 3, Reynolds 1, Kossian 5, Parker 1. Records—Meadowdale 3-2 league, 8-4 overall. Marysville Pilchuck 2-3, 4-7.
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