Grizzlies top Oak Harbor
Published 10:08 pm Thursday, February 10, 2011
SNOHOMISH — There was one big absence on the Glacier Peak boys basketball roster Thursday, literally and figuratively.
Payton Pervier, the top post player in Wesco and the leading scorer, rebounder and shot blocker on the No. 7-ranked Grizzlies, is no longer a member of the program, according to Glacier Peak coach Brian Hunter. Hunter would not elaborate on the reason for Pervier’s absence on the court, but the 6-foot-11 center bound for Northwest Nazarene was in attendance to watch Glacier Peak defeat Oak Harbor 64-37 in a first-round Northwest District 3A Tournament game at Glacier Peak.
The win vaults the top-seeded Grizzlies (19-2), who finished fourth at state a year ago, into a winner-to-state semifinal home matchup with Meadowdale on Saturday. Oak Harbor (6-15), which lost all three meetings with Glacier Peak this season, plays a loser-out game against Sedro-Woolley Saturday.
Hunter said Pervier’s absence was a distraction, but he was pleased with how his team overcame it.
“It has to be a distraction,” Hunter said. “But I really liked the way our kids played. We didn’t do anything different, we just played inspired and played hard.”
Senior forward Jack Bonner, who led all scorers with 18 points, agreed that there was no question his team had to overcome a major distraction.
“He was a really big part of our team,” Bonner said. “But we all responded really well.”
Indeed, Glacier Peak didn’t seem to miss a step against Oak Harbor, playing outstanding defense in holding the Wildcats to 37.5 percent shooting and displaying crisp ball movement on the perimeter, helping the Grizzlies make 10 3-pointers, including five by Dylan Vargas and four by Bonner.
“We won on the defensive end,” Hunter said. “We focused on some guys who can really hurt you, like Mike Washington, who is an extremely talented player. … Offensively, we’re at our best when multiple guys are getting touches, we’re doing a lot of screening and getting good ball movement.”
Glacier Peak wasted little time taking control, leading 13-2 behind three consecutive 3-pointers, one by Bonner and two by Vargas, who had 17 points. Washington, Oak Harbor’s standout guard, tried to keep his team in it, scoring nine of his 12 points in the first half but after Oak Harbor closed to 16-10 to end the first quarter, Glacier Peak opened the second with a 8-0 run including threes by Bonner and Tanner Southard to make it 24-10. Oak Harbor got no closer than 12 the rest of the way.
“We just took what they were giving us,” Vargas said. “We spread things out and looked for open shots.”
Glacier Peak had good balance on offense, getting 10 points, five rebounds and seven assists from Southard and eight points each from Zach Pederson and Leon Williams.
With Game 1 of the post-Pervier season behind it, Glacier Peak now looks ahead to the next step on what it hopes will still be a long postseason run.
“We still have a lot of talented guys on this team,” Vargas said. “We played like that tonight.”
“It would have been really easy for us to look ahead or get distracted,” Bonner added. “But the way we played tonight, it didn’t show (that we were distracted). I thought we handled everything really well.”
At Glacier Peak H.S.
Oak Harbor 10 5 12 10 — 37
Glacier Peak 16 15 19 14 — 64
Oak Harbor: D. Washington 8, Massey 3, T. Paul 0, Johannsen 0, Houck 0, Stout 5, M. Washington 12, C. Paul 2, Herron 2, Bratt 5, Tillotson 0. Glacier Peak: Schaub 0, Williams 8, Tarvin 0, Vargas 17, Southard 10, Impola 0, Davelaar 1, Harrison 2, Harris 0, Pederson 8, Pohrman 0, Bonner 18. 3-point goals: Stout 1, Bratt 1, M. Washington 1, D. Washington 1, Vargas 5, Bonner 4, Southard 1. Records: Oak Harbor 6-15, Glacier Peak 19-2.
