SNOHOMISH — The final 25 seconds of Friday night’s non-conference basketball game between Arlington and Snohomish happened so fast Arlington head coach Nick Brown wasn’t quite sure what happened.
The good news for Brown, his team won.
With his team trailing 52-51, Arlington junior guard Donovan Sellgren drove the baseline and converted a contested lay up to give the Eagles a 53-52 lead with 21 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. Moments later, Sellgren came up with a steal and dished the ball to fellow junior guard Tylor Morton for another lay up to push the lead to 55-52 with 14 seconds left on the clock.
Snohomish’s senior point guard Zak Carlson pushed the ball up the court to try and get off a game-tying 3-pointer, but his shot came off the rim as time expired and the Eagles escaped with a 55-52 win.
“That last 15 seconds, I don’t really know what happened,” Brown said. “It was one of those things where we scored and then we got it back and all the sudden we scored again. It was just like, ‘Holy moley.’ My first thought was get back, get back, get back and don’t foul, but all of the sudden the ball is in our hands and the next thing you know we’re going back at it.”
Sellgren scored 12 points to lead the Eagles, but it was the final two plays he made that were the most memorable.
“Donovan, I thought, just played so well,” Brown said. “He just made so many things happen.”
The victory didn’t come easily for the Eagles. Snohomish was the dominant team early in the game. The Panthers used an 11-0 run to take a 16-6 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Against Snohomish’s zone, Arlington looked out of sorts offensively.
“We struggled against that zone a little bit at first, which is frustrating because we talked about that last night quite a bit,” Brown said. “They’re so long and they don’t play you man-to-man as much as they play passing lanes and so they tip everything. It was a different look for us. We talked yesterday that we couldn’t pass and screen away because that’s what they want you to do, so we finally figured out to pass and start cutting and that’s when thing really started clicking for us.”
By the end of the second quarter, Arlington had cut the deficit to two, trailing 28-26.
It appeared the Eagles had momentum at the break, but it was the Panthers who struck first in the second half. Snohomish opened the half on a 12-4 run to extend the lead back to 10 to start the third quarter. Snohomish led 46-37 at the end of the stanza.
“We said at the (end of the third) quarter that if we could get it down to four, than we have a chance,” Brown said. “We’re young and untested and I really didn’t know what we were going to do. They’ve done it in the summer, but they’ve never really done it under the big lights.
“I felt like I was watching a team literally growing before my eyes.”
Snohomish dropped to 0-2 to start the season, but looked considerably better than it did in Tuesday’s 58-44 loss to crosstown-rival Glacier Peak.
“We’re making progress,” Snohomish head coach Len Bone said. “I think our awareness of what we were guarding and how we were being guarded, both of those things were better, but they still weren’t real good.”
At Snohomish H.S.
Arlington6201118—55
Snohomish1612186—52
Arlington—Tylor Morton 4, Donovan Sellgren 12, Aaron Carlson 0, Nathan Aune 12, Cole Kingsberry 3, Connor Bovard 3, Drew Bryson 8, Brennon Wiersma 5, Jeremy Bishop 8. Snohomish—Tristan MacGregor 0, Zak Carlson 18, Mitch Morris 0, Kobe McDaniel 9, Kole Bride 0, Andrew Kane 4, Danny McGregor 0, Jake Perry 0, Collin Kane 21. 3-point goals—Sellgren 1, Aune 1, Kingsberry 1, Wiersma 1, Carlson 3, McDaniel 1, Kane 1. Records—Arlington 2-0 overall. Snohomish 0-2.
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