Attending the state basketball tournament in the Tacoma Dome has been an annual tradition for Marysville Pilchuck boys coach Bary Gould.
This year, though, Gould’s team will be joining him in Tacoma.
Led by Gould and senior guard Michael Painter, the Tomahawks are in the state tournament for the first time since 1993, Gould’s senior year at MP.
“Every single year I go there and I watch those games,” Gould said. “I’m always wanting to be one of those teams that is actually warming up and on the floor. I feel like it’s going to hit me when I’m doing that — when we’re walking through the pass gate and warming up on the floor. I’d get there early to get a good seat for the good games and this year people will get there early to watch us play. That’s really cool.”
Two seasons ago, Marysville Pilchuck finished 1-19. Painter and Gould are the lone holdovers from that team. It’s the second big turnaround for Gould, whose Tomahawk squad went 0-20 the season before it qualified for the 1993 state tournament.
The Tomahawks began this season with five consecutive victories. Over the last half of the season, they lost just two games — both to Stanwood — to finish second in the Wesco 3A North. Marysville Pilchuck lost by one point to Glacier Peak in the district semifinals, but responded by gutting out a 49-46 victory over Arlington in the third-place, winner-to-regionals game.
“At the beginning of the season we were talking and thought, ‘It’s been 21 or 22 years since MP’s gotten a regional berth,’” Painter said after the Arlington win. “We were like, ‘Hey, we can do this.’ And in that final moment it was, ‘We got it.’”
Painter had a big game in the regionals. The senior scored 24 points — including going 7 of 8 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter — in a 51-47 win over Kennewick at Chiawana High School in Pasco. The victory punched the Tomahawks’ ticket to the state tournament in Tacoma.
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