ARLINGTON — Kyra Prause did what most high school athletes should do — relax and have fun — and in doing so put together the performance of her season.
Taking the advice of her head coach Nathan Davis, Prause scored a season-high 24 points to lead the Arlington Eagles to the 62-52 Western Conference North Division win over the Marysville-Pilchuck Tomahawks Friday night at Arlington High School.
After being frustrated and held to only one point in a 60-43 loss to the Tomahawks on January 24, Davis told the senior guard to “just play” and Prause answered.
“He told me to play relaxed. I was really tensed up,” Prause said of the prior meeting.
Prause scored 16 of her points in the first half and Arlington (8-4 in league, 10-5 overall) won an important rematch against the Tomahawks, a win that allowed the Eagles to leapfrog Marysville-Pilchuck (8-5, 11-6) into second place in the division.
“It’s a huge momentum swing. We were emotionally down after two battles,” Davis said referring to back-to-back losses to Marysville-Pilchuck and Monroe, “This was an important one.”
The win was a big step toward reaching the 4A District 1 tournament. The Eagles had played in the Class 3A the last two seasons winning just four games in two seasons, something Prause said she’s not used to.
“It feels so good. It’s stressful because you’re expected to win, but its fun to win,” Prause said.
Davis and the Eagles made some big adjustments from last week’s meeting.
In the prior meeting, Arlington allowed Marysville-Pilchuck’s post duo of Britt Harris and Brittany Pierce to score a combined 41 points, two less than the entire Eagles’ offense put up.
Friday night it was a different story as the Eagles packed in its interior defense and allowed the Tomahawks’ shooters to fire up shots.
Thankfully for Davis and the Eagles those shots weren’t falling.
“We probably couldn’t hit the ocean,” Marysville-Pilchuck head coach Julie Martin said.
The Tomahawks shot 22 percent from the field including a dismal 2-for-26 from behind the 3-point arc.
“We had to give something up. We kind of gambled a bit I guess,” Davis said of his defensive switch.
Morgan Martinis hit M-P’s first 3-pointer two minutes into the game and it wasn’t until 2:38 remained before Kaitlyn Enberg drained the second.
“They did a great job. They completely packed it in on our posts. Last game our posts had 20 and 21, (Friday) we couldn’t hit anything on the outside,” Martin said.
“We emphasized on double-and triple-teaming Pierce and Harris,”Davis said. “Harris is really good. We tried to make her touches as hard as we could.”
Harris still had a big game scoring 18 points and pulling in 17 rebounds but Pierce was held scoreless.
While Marysville-Pilchuck’s offense was struggling, the Eagles’ offense was heating up.
Arlington mounted its comeback in the second quarter, scoring 15 points and holding Marysville-Pilchuck without a field goal in the final six minutes of the half.
The Eagles didn’t cool down then. They outscored the Tomahawks 16-7 in the third quarter and entered the fourth with their biggest lead of the night, a 10-point 41-31 lead.
At Arlington H.S.
M-P1311711—42
Arlington10151611—52
M-P—Cull 0, Martinis 7, K. Enberg 6, Oden 0, Harris 18, E. Enberg 1, Heckendorf 10, Pierce 0, Lentz 0. Arlington—Prause 24, Scheppele 3, Evans 0, Duncan 0, Kesselring 7, Murrin 0, Weber 2, Daggett 2, Schmuck 5, Wilson 6, Ferro 3. 3-pointers—Martinis 1, K. Enberg 1, Prause 1, Scheppele 1. Records—M-P 8-5 in league, 11-6 overall. Arlington 8-4, 10-5.
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