Marysville-Pilchuck nets district berth with OT win

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, February 12, 2002

By Chris Trujillo

Herald Writer

MARYSVILLE – It was supposed to be a routine victory. It was supposed be inspiring.

It wasn’t.

But in the end, and after an enormous-sized scare, the Marysville-Pilchuck boys basketball team escaped its own home court with an exciting 70-69 overtime victory over Western Conference North Division foe Lake Stevens on Tuesday night.

Sophomore Marquis Pittman scored the winning basket after driving past his defender for a lay-in with 29 seconds remaining in overtime to secure the game for the Tomahawks. The victory clinched a district playoff berth for the Tommies, who improved to 9-6 in league and 10-9 overall. Marysville-Pilchuck will wrap up the season Friday on the road against Mount Vernon. Lake Stevens, which has lost 10 of its past 11 games, dropped to 3-12, and 4-15.

Pittman led M-P with 16 points and Charlie Soper followed with 13 points.

“Yeah, we got the berth, but I can’t say it was easy,” M-P coach Mike Lowery said. “I am so impressed with Lake Stevens. They just kept coming at us. They played very tough.”

After falling behind 65-61 in overtime, M-P pulled to within one point after Soper drained a 3-point basket with 1:47 remaining.

Six-foot-eight junior Chris Gill, after pulling down his ninth rebound, converted a perfect pass from Pittman to give M-P the lead, 68-67.

“We struggled all night long,” Lowery said. “But we filled it up down the stretch when we needed to.”

M-P grabbed the lead for just the second time in the game with 7 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter after Mariel Crews made a pair of free throws.

The Tommies increased their lead with 2:48 in regulaton after Soper nailed one of his three 3-pointers

With time winding down, Lake Stevens’ Trevor Johnson, who scored eight of his 14 points in the final 1:30, tied the score at 60-60 with 24 seconds with his third 3-pointer of the fourth quarter.

Matthew Stevens scored 14 points and Blake Carbonatto finished with 10 points for Lake Stevens.

M-P went on a 10-4 run to end the third quarter. It carried its momentum into the early part of the fourth quarter by going on a 7-3 spurt to keep Lake Stevens within striking distance.