ARLINGTON — Tyler Busby was tired of battling his teammates at practice so he decided to pick on someone else for a change.
The 6-foot-2 forward scored 25 points, including 13 during Arlington’s game-changing third quarter and the Eagles ran away with the 85-57 non-conference season-opening win over the Sultan Turks at Arlington High School Tuesday night.
“It’s a big win. We’ve been battling at practice with each other, getting competitive. It felt good to get out there and bump with some other guys,” Busby said.
Busby, who shared team-high scoring honors with teammate Cole Carpenter, scored 11 straight in the third quarter, including the game’s first 3-pointer during a 14-0 stretch that saw the Eagles hold the Turks scoreless for 3 minutes, 25 seconds.
The senior, who fell three points shy of his career-high of 28 set last season against Everett, scored on an array of lay-ins set up from his point guard Carpenter.
“I was kind of feeling it, I just wanted the ball. The team played well we had no selfishness,” Busby added of his teammates.
“Tyler stepped in real big today, so did Cole,” Arlington head coach Nick Brown said. “I was real proud of all of them.”
Carpenter finished with 25 points and teammates Will Heath and Lucas Larson each scored 10 points apiece.
Busby’s third quarter performance overshadowed a superb season debut by Turks’ star Jordan Nicholes.
After averaging 24.4 points per game in 2007-08, Nicholes looks posed to raise that average, scoring a game-high 37 points, including shooting 13-for-16 from the free throw line.
Nicholes consistently got to the basket where he was often met by two to three Arlington defenders.
“We need to do a better job of getting stops when it counts. We let Jordan go free and he hurt us. He’s a really good player. He’s very slippery and so quick to the rim,” Brown said.
“Everybody helped out on Jordan, we pretty much did all we could to contain him,” Busby said of his team’s defense.
The senior guard scored 16 of Sultan’s 22 points in the second quarter when it looked like Sultan may creep back into the game.
“He’s really impressive. He does it on both ends. He worked his butt off,” Sultan head coach Nate Trichler said, noting that Nicholes also took two charges on defense.
Sultan, a 2A school that plays in the Cascade Conference, cut the Eagles’ lead to nine points midway through the second quarter then again early in the third quarter before the lapses on defense allowed Busby and the Eagles to make their run.
“We learned that our defense isn’t really where we want it to be. We’re a smaller school coming to play a bigger school and we’ve got to come in being a believer,” Sultan head coach Nate Trichler said of playing the Class 4A Eagles.
At Arlington High School
Sultan6221415—57
Arlington17222422—85
Sultan—Nicholes 37, LaMunyon 8, Hall 3, Barnhill 3, E. VandenEkart 2, Beebe 2, Knoles 2, Ruddock 0, T. VandenEkart 0. Arlington—Busby 25, Carpenter 25, Heath 10, Larson 10, Cooper 4, Richardson 4, Petit 4, Carlson 3, Petersen 0, Snell 0. 3-pointers—LaMunyon 1, Busby 1, Carpenter 2. Records—Sultan 0-1 overall. Arlington 1-0.
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