ARLINGTON — For three and a half quarters, it seemed like the Shorecrest boys’ basketball team was in prime position to steal a win on the road in a Wesco 3A heavyweight battle in Arlington Thursday night.
That all changed in the final minutes, as the Eagles stuck to their guns and rode an 11-0 run over the final 3 minutes, 22 seconds to seal a 53-48 victory over the Scots, garnering their first lead of the game late in the fourth quarter.
With the win, Arlington earned itself more breathing room atop the conference in a tight Wesco 3A/2A league race, moving to 13-2 overall on the year and 10-1 in league play.
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Sophomore guard Leyton Martin was the offensive catalyst for the Eagles comeback, dropping 19 of his game-high 23 points in the second half, and 6-foot-6 senior forward David Zachman added 12 points and six rebounds. Senior Ty Rusko chipped in 11 points.
Shorecrest senior guard Parker Baumann led the Scots (9-5, 7-3) as the lone player in double-figures, tallying 22 points through three quarters and adding six boards before he was held scoreless in the final frame.
“Parker’s a good player,” Arlington coach Nick Brown said. “The thing that makes him so good is that he’s a tall guard, so you cant really guard him with a big, and he can pull up right over your head with his shot. We knew if we could slow him down we’d have better luck, and we did .. I’m just really proud of our guys, this was a big team win for us.”
To open things up, both squads traded 7-0 runs, with the Eagles first points coming with 3:08 to go in the first. Shorecrest senior guard Keaine Silimon sunk two free throws to end the first, and Baumann delivered back-to-back buckets early in the second to give the Scots a 13-7 lead, triggering an Arlington timeout.
Up until the fourth quarter, Shorecrest had answered every run the Eagles brought their way.
Baumann drilled a 3-pointer on the right wing, pushing his team ahead 20-14 with 2:10 left before halftime as the Scots marched into the locker room with a 22-16 advantage.
In the second half, Shorecrest got an even bigger cushion, with Silimon floating in a layup from an offensive rebound to provide the Scots their largest lead of the contest at 33-21 with 4:10 left in the third.
Arlington then started kicking it into gear, as it regained some momentum, going on a 13-5 spurt to end the period. Martin scored 13 of his points in the third, including three 3s as the Eagles pulled closer, trailing 38-34 as they headed into the final quarter.
Arlington’s Leyton Martin makes a layup during the game against Shorecrest on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023 in Arlington, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Shorecrest held the lead tight in the early portions of the fourth, with 6-5 sophomore forward Disma Kagarabi (nine points, seven rebounds) hitting a corner triple in front of the Scots bench, giving them a 43-34 lead with 6:17 remaining.
“The guys answered the bell,” Brown said. “Our defensive guy (assistant coach Ronnie Pride) made some adjustments and our kids were tough down the stretch. We weren’t going away, we’re gonna go toe-to-toe with you. I thought their team was a little more ready to go tonight than we were, and we were kinda caught in the headlights. But I feel like we bounced back and just made simple adjustments together.”
Rusko went on to score eight of his 11 points the rest of the way, including a putback lay-in to put Arlington up 49-48 with 1:30 to go. Martin closed the game out at the free-throw line, going 4-for-4 from the stripe as Shorecrest was unable to capitalize on the other end, completing the gutsy Eagles comeback.
“This was a big challenge for us,” Martin said. “We had been looking forward to this game for a while. (Shorecrest) has a lot of guys who can flat out play. We’ve been looking forward to this, and we’ve tended to start a bit slow at times this year. But I thought we finally started locking in on defense and doing the little things to get back into the game and turned it on when it mattered.”
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