MARYSVILLE — Sidney Rielly often produces the bulk of the offense for the Everett girls basketball team.
Not Wednesday night against Marysville Pilchuck. As the senior guard struggled, her younger sister, Darian, picked up the slack, scoring 14 points to lead the Seagulls to a 45-36 win over the Tomahawks. Darian Rielly’s 3-point shot with 10 seconds to play in the third quarter gave Everett the lead for the first time since the first quarter and the Seagulls never again trailed.
“Sidney’s so good sometimes it’s easy to rely on her to bail us out offensively,” Everett head coach John Low said, adding he’s been focusing in practice on getting others to step up offensively, “and when the shots are there they need to take them.”
It wasn’t just the younger Rielly who stepped up for the Seagulls. Junior Caroline Overstreet contributed two key baskets in the second half and sophomore Sydney Taggart added nine points. Taggart scored seven of the team’s 19 points in the first half to keep Everett in the game when it was struggling the most offensively.
“She has a real nice shot,” Low said of Taggart. “She just needs to look for it a little bit more and find the right time and space to shoot it, but she’s definitely capable of doing that. We’re kind of looking to her or a post to be our third scorer.”
Taught defense played a key role in the Seagulls’ victory. While Everett allowed Marysville Pilchuck to score 15 points in the second quarter, the Seagulls held the Tomahawks to nine or less in the other three periods.
“I think in the second quarter some of the rebounding got away from us a little bit and they got some second-chance baskets,” Low said. “We talked about cleaning up the rebounding and making sure we had five girls rebounding and then we switched defenses in the second half and that helped.”
The Tomahawks’ defense was nearly as good, holding Everett to just six points in the second quarter and Sidney Rielly to nine points for the game, well below her 23-point average this season.
“Our focus actually was completely on (the Rielly sisters),” Marysville Pilchuck head coach Julie Martin said. “We did the triangle-and-two and we really executed.”
The Seagulls led 13-8 after one quarter, but a 7-0 run to start the second put the Tomahawks ahead for the first time since the game’s opening basket. Marysville Pilchuck led 23-19 at halftime after scoring the final four points of the first half.
After halftime, the Tomahawks’ offense was stagnant. MP scored just four points in the third quarter and 13 total in the game’s final 16 minutes.
“We worked really, really hard,” Martin said. “They executed what we put in defensively, it’s just our shots didn’t fall in the second half.”
The Seagulls’ victory moved them to 4-0 in league play and gave them sole possession of first place in the Wesco 3A North.
“In three weeks or four weeks, it’s not going to mean a whole lot,” Low said of his team sitting alone first place now. “It’s good because it gives you a little bit of distance and it gives you the opportunity if you have an off night to bounce back from it. We’re going into the (Wesco) South stretch. There are not many easy games in the Wesco 3A, so it’s nice anytime you can get a win. It helps protect you a little bit.”
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.
Everett 13 6 11 15 — 45
Marysville Pilchuck 8 15 4 9 — 36
Everett—Megan Dedrick 1, Caroline Overstreet 4, Sydney Taggart 9, Darian Rielly 14, Sidney Rielly 9, Tenika Wentworth 2, Julie Ramirez 0, Amber Hagar 4, Katy Hedington 2. Marysville Pilchuck—Charlee Pilon 4, Amanda Klep 7, Megan Owens 0, Halie Romo 3, Jenika Anglim 15, Jordan Bengen 5, Marley Reynolds 0, Binta Bojang 2. 3-point goals—Taggart 1, D. Rielly 1, Klep 2, Romo 1. Records – Everett 4-0 league, 8-3 overall. Marysville Pilchuck 2-1, 5-5.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
