Mariner throttles W. Seattle
Published 12:20 am Wednesday, November 28, 2007
EVERETT — Winning a season-opener by 28 points is impressive enough. Doing it without two key players is almost unheard of.
Despite not having two of its top posts because they haven’t completed enough practices to be eligible, the Mariner High School boys basketball team blasted the West Seattle Wildcats 54-26 Tuesday in a non-conference game at the Mariner High gym.
Nick Malysheff (17 points, six rebounds) and Joey Dillon (10 points, four boards) were the leading scorers for Mariner, which used an effective blend of fierce defense, end-to-end hustle and balanced scoring to throttle West Seattle.
Mariner, picked to win the Western Conference South Division in The Herald’s preseason coaches’ poll, earned extra scoring chances with offensive rebounds and stifled West Seattle’s offense. The Wildcats didn’t score a point in the second quarter and endured a scoring drought of nearly 14 minutes.
“They really got after it on the glass, and then defensively they did a good job of getting to all the loose balls. And just hustling — they hustled like they normally do,” Mariner coach Dexter Griffen said.
Mariner, whose next game is 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Auburn Mountainview, didn’t have junior posts Kyle Bastys (6-foot-6) and Adrien Black (6-3). Both of them will be eligible soon and could play against Mountainview, said Griffen.
Mariner still had plenty of speed and muscle to run away from West Seattle. Guards Dillon and Danny Chhann combined for 19 of Mariner’s 24 first-half points. In the second half, Marauders posts Malysheff and Damascus Purnell combined to score 22 points over the final two quarters.
Purnell grabbed six boards total and was 5-for-6 from the foul line in the third quarter.
Often ignited by Michael Minor and Tevin Dillon (four steals apiece), Mariner’s quick, persistent zone defense hounded West Seattle and forced numerous turnovers.
“Dexter’s got a nice team,” West Seattle coach Bob Wilzen said. “They played hard and they’ve got good size.”
Mariner has just two seniors (Chhann and Joey Dillon) but most of its varsity players contributed last season when the Marauders advanced to the Class 4A state tournament.
“You can see even though they’re young they’ve got a lot of experience,” Wilzen said.
Mariner didn’t give up a point in the second quarter and led 24-8 by the intermission. The Marauders forced turnovers on nearly every West Seattle possession, but West Seattle further limited its scoring chances by using a stall approach in which it passed the ball around the perimeter for 30-plus seconds at a time.
Mariner made just three shots in the second quarter but still increased its lead from nine points to 16. West Seattle cut the deficit to 14 points in the third quarter but never got any closer. Point guard Keenen Allen (seven points) was the Wildcats’ top scorer.
Mariner was happy about the victory but far from satisfied.
“It was good for the first game of the season,” Malysheff said, “but we’re trying to improve and get better.”
Chhann helped spark Mariner early. He tallied seven first-quarter points, all on smooth mid- to long-range jump shots.
“I’ve been working on that every day before school for about half an hour,” said Chhann. “The coaches want me to shoot the ball from the beginning of the game to get everybody else going.”
Like just about everything else Mariner tried in its season opener, Chhann’s strategy worked perfectly.
At Mariner H.S.
West Seattle80108—26
Mariner1771515—54
West Seattle—Allen 7, Lee 1, Love 4, Gross 5, Webber Jr., Wheeler, Hamlin 1, Austin 1, Denton 5, Cherin, Brown 2. Mariner—J. Dillon 10, Chhann 9, T. Dillon 2, Malysheff 17, Purnell 8, Minor 8, Doerscher, McCollough. 3-point goals-Allen 1, Gross 1, Denton 1, J. Dillon 2, Chhann 1, Minor 1. JV score-Mariner 66, West Seattle 48. Records—West Seattle 0-1 overall. Mariner 1-0.
Contact Herald Writer Mike Cane at mcane@heraldnet.com. For more high school sports news, check out the prep sports blog Double Team at cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet/doubleteam.
