Stanwood tops MP 65-49 to take over first place in Wesco 3A North

Published 10:57 pm Thursday, January 22, 2015

STANWOOD — The transformation is complete for Stanwood head coach Zach Ward.

The Marysville Pilchuck alum, who played with Tomahawks head coach Bary Gould in high school and college, once again got the best of his high school team. Stanwood used a big run early and relentless defensive pressure to pull away 65-49 in a game that featured the top two teams in the Wesco 3A North.

“I think I probably used to think about that more early in my coaching career. I think now, this is who I am,” said Ward, who is in his eighth year coaching the Spartans. “Obviously, I know Bary and he’s a super guy and we’re good buddies. But, along those same lines, just like Nick (Brown) at Arlington, those are sometimes the guys you want to beat a little bit more. There’s no hate. I don’t think about it anymore. That was a long time ago I was there.

“Same colors, different decade.”

Ward and the Spartans used a 13-0 run to overtake Marysville Pilchuck in the first quarter and never looked back.

The Tomahawks kept it close through the first three quarters, trailing by nine at the start of the fourth, but Stanwood’s depth and defense — as well as foul trouble for the Tomahawks — started to take its toll on Marysville Pilchuck.

“I felt like we used our depth to our advantage tonight,” said Ward. “We played a lot of guys and we got up and down the court. That’s something that, every game, we’re going in knowing we can play 10 or 11 guys. Not a lot of teams have that.”

Karsten Chaplik led the way for the Spartans with a game-high 27 points. The senior had 13 in the first half and closed out the fourth quarter with nine — all coming from the free-throw line.

“You need that senior leadership,” Ward said. “That’s back-to-back games now where we’ve needed a little spark — a little offense — and he’s provided it. He’s a three-year varsity kid. He doesn’t lack confidence. He’s an important part of what we do.”

Both teams were 4-0 in league coming into the game, making it an important one for playoff seeding.

Chaplik and the Spartans knew what was at stake.

“It was a really big game coming in,” said Chaplik, who scored 20 points in Stanwood’s 66-59 win over Marysville Getchell on Tuesday. “We knew that the winner of this game had a big advantage. We feel like we’re at a pretty good spot. We feel like we’re playing better and better each game. We just want to keep improving with each game in the second half.”

Skout Roberson and AJ Martinka recorded double-doubles for Stanwood (5-0 league, 11-4 overall), with Roberson scoring 13 points and grabbing 10 rebounds and Martinka netting 12 with 10 boards.

As a team, Stanwood outrebounded Marysville Pilchuck 37-21.

“I thought our guys did a good job understanding their matchups,” Ward said. “Defensively, I thought we did a good job forcing them into tough spots. And we did a great job on defensive rebounds in the first half.”

Marysville Pilchuck (4-1, 11-4) struggled offensively. Bryce Juneau (24 points) scored almost half of the points for Marysville Pilchuck, which suited up eight players.

“I think their relentless pressure, and being able to rotate several good players with their depth,” Gould said. “We’ve got some work to do. Our leading scorers struggled. At some level, they’re playing pretty good defense but on the other hand we had some open looks as well.”

Juneau, a junior, provided the offensive spark for Marysville Pilchuck before fouling out midway through the fourth quarter.

“As a point guard he’s so selfless, often times he’ll defer to the other guys,” Gould said. “Tonight, he was able to get to the rim and he opted to shoot it, which was good for us and kept us in it. He had a monster game for us and kept us in it.”

With senior Bryce Vitcovich on a football recruiting trip, the Tomahawks had just three substitutes for the game. Gould said that the team focuses on conditioning, and being tired wasn’t part of the Spartans pulling away late.

Four Tomahawks fouled out — the last coming with 16 seconds to go in the game — giving Marysville Pilchuck just four eligible players on the court as the final buzzer sounded.

“We were a little short-handed tonight,” Gould said. “But we have a solid squad. We’re not done by any stretch of the imagination. We’re in second place in our league. We’ll see those guys at our place on senior night on the last game of the (regular) season and hopefully it has similar ramifications at that point.”

At Stanwood H.S.

Marysville Pilchuck 12 11 16 10 —49

Stanwood 18 15 15 17 —65

Marysville Pilchuck—Bryce Juneau 24, Josh Bevan 3, Michael Painter 9, Cole Grinde 4, Erik Lind 0, Zach Verge 3, Aaron Herrera 0, Nate Heckendorf 6. Stanwood—AJ Martinka 12, Quinton Borseth 4, Bryson Kelley 5, Austin Wilhonen 2, Chase Strieby 0, Cameron Plautz 2, Carlton McDonald 0, Derek Ross 0, Isaac Olson 0, Karsten Chaplik 27, Skout Roberson 13. 3-point goals—Juneau 4, Bevan 1, Chaplik 2. Records—Marysville Pilchuck 4-1 league, 11-4 overall. Stanwood 5-0, 11-4.