Panthers claw their way back
Published 9:00 pm Friday, January 5, 2007
STANWOOD – Stuart Shilling isn’t a starter, but he sure knows how to finish.
Shilling came off the bench to score nine points, including five in the fourth quarter, to help the Snohomish boys basketball team shake off a slow start and beat the Stanwood Spartans on Friday night.
In an extremely physical battle for first place in the Western Conference North Division, Snohomish withstood a game-high 17 points from Stanwood’s Tyler Monroe to prevail 41-39 in a packed, lively Stanwood High gym.
Shilling, a senior forward, made two foul shots with 12.9 seconds to go to give Snohomish (6-0 Wesco North, 10-0 overall) a 41-37 lead. Stanwood’s Monroe, who scored eight in the fourth quarter, came close to rallying his team, but Snohomish hung on to remain unbeaten.
The 6-foot-5 Shilling, who came in averaging 4.3 points, gave Snohomish a big lift.
“He could probably start,” Snohomish coach Len Bone said, “but like I’ve told him, he’ll probably finish a lot of the time. And finishing might be as (important) or more important than starting.”
Monroe’s layin cut it to 41-39 with 6.4 seconds remaining. After Shilling missed the front end of a 1-and-1 opportunity at the foul line, Monroe grabbed the rebound, dribbled up the floor and hit the front of the rim on a turnaround 3-point heave from about 25 feet at the buzzer.
“Maybe he’s 2 inches from having five points in (6.4) seconds,” Bone said. “That’s a heck of an individual effort.”
Stanwood’s Derek Anderson, , who came in averaging 17.8 points, hurt his right (shooting) hand when he fell on it 58 seconds into the game. He finished with just eight points for Stanwood, which slipped to 6-1, 8-3.
“It was a battle, physically and mentally. We tried our best but it didn’t happen,” said Anderson, who scored two points in the second half.
Anderson’s injury came when he jumped to catch a pass thrown high toward the rim and crashed hard to the floor. Anderson, who slammed in a dunk off a missed shot in the second quarter, said he planned to have the hand X-rayed after the game.
“Losing any guy in high school basketball is tough … especially a player of that caliber,” Stanwood coach Brian Hunter said of Anderson. “Hopefully that’s not the case.”
Stanwood led 19-14 by the end of a gritty first half marked by shooting woes and miscues. Snohomish had just two more points than turnovers (12) and was 5-for-24 from the field (20.8 percent) in the half.
A tough Stanwood defense and his players’ poor shot selection hurt Snohomish, Bone said. Referring to Snohomish’s 14 points through two quarters, Bone quipped, “Nobody’s gonna call me and say, ‘Hey, what kind of offenses are you running?’”
Stanwood also struggled on offense. The Spartans were 6-for-23 from the field in the opening half (26.1 percent).
At halftime Bone challenged Snohomish to pick up the intensity, Shilling said.
“Our coach talked about toughness at halftime,” Shilling said, “and we really picked it up.”
Snohomish took better care of the ball in the third quarter and made three 3-pointers to get back in the game. Kegan Bone (nine points) made a 3-pointer that got Snohomish within one (28-27) with 41 seconds to go in the third quarter.
Snohomish began the fourth quarter with a 6-0 run and took its first lead since hitting the game’s opening basket to go up 2-0. Neither team led by more than four points the rest of the way.
Stanwood has fared well in close games this year, but came up short in its latest thriller.
“Luckily we’ve been on the positive side of a lot of them,” coach Hunter said. “We’ll learn from this. We love the fact that we always compete and we don’t give up.”
At Stanwood H.S.
Snohomish681314-41
Stanwood136128-39
Snohomish-Bone 9, Low 3, Diederichs 7, Wilde 7, Jenkins 6, Shilling 9. Stanwood-Monroe 17, Anderson 8, Zweber 1, Lipinski 7, Klempel 2, Johnson 4. 3-point goals-Bone 2, Low 1, Wilde 1, Monroe 1, Anderson 1. JV score-Stanwood 64, Snohomish 56. Records-Snohomish 6-0 in division, 10-0 overall. Stanwood 6-1, 8-3.
