SNOHOMISH — The Glacier Peak boys basketball team may be just two games into the 2015-16 season, but already the Grizzlies are battle tested.
Glacier Peak beat crosstown rival Snohomish by one point Tuesday and followed that up by narrowly defeating Jackson 52-47 Friday in a game that neither team led by more than six points.
“I think we learned something from the Snohomish game,” Glacier Peak head coach Brian Hunter said. “We played harder tonight. We played a little more the way that we normally play, which was great to see. It’s so early that you’re just hoping to get better every game. I think we got better. Jackson is going to be a good basketball team and they’re going to win a lot of games.”
Glacier Peak was led by senior Justin Guffey, who was encouraged by his team’s two early-season victories.
“It will help us in the long run because there’s going to be a lot of close games throughout the year, but I think it showed we’ve still got stuff to work on,” Guffey said.
Guffey finished with 15 points to lead all scorers.
“If you look at his scoring, when we needed a big bucket in the game it was probably him that made it or made a play to get a basket,” Hunter said. “He has a knack for doing that. He’s going to be a whole lot better in a few months, but I’m pretty happy with where he is right now.”
Glacier Peak led by as many as five points in the first quarter, but the two teams were tied 11-11 after one. Guffey scored eight points in the second quarter to give him 12 in the first half and the Grizzlies led 28-27 at halftime. Jackson looked poised to take a 27-25 lead into the locker room, but senior Zach Argue connected on a long 3-pointer with less than five seconds remaining in the first half to give his team the lead.
The Timberwolves leading scorer from a year ago, senior Sam Saufferer, struggled offensively in the first half. Saufferer had six points at the break and made just one of his first eight shots. The Grizzlies seemed to find their most success on defense when they switched to a box-and-one with senior Jack Wygant guarding Saufferer.
“That was a cool thing for Jack to come out and do that,” Hunter said. “He’s the kind of kid that I think we knew could handle that role. It’s a hard thing to do to kind of lose track of your man-to-man principles and be a box-and-one guy, but Jack did a super job.”
Jackson head coach Steve Johnson expected the Grizzlies would play some box-and-one.
“They’re basically going to sell out to stop one guy,” Johnson said. “I thought we had a few great looks. We had the ball in the middle of the key and we missed a few around the basket. That’s the theory of a box-and-one, I guess, is to force other people to make baskets.”
Saufferer scored seven points in the third quarter to help his team take a 36-33 lead after three quarters, but Glacier Peak’s Brendan Tetrault scored all seven of his points early in the fourth quarter to help the Grizzlies reclaim the lead.
Senior Zach Hatch’s bucket with 34 seconds to play gave Glacier Peak its biggest lead of the game and sealed the victory for the Grizzlies.
Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on Twitter at @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.
At Glacier Peak H.S.
Jackson1116911—47
Glacier Peak1117519—52
Jackson—Brian Brown 11, Parker Manalo 3, Ian Willgress 5, Brock Peterson 2, Jordan Brajcich 3, Hunter Johnson 0, Sam Saufferer 14, Hunter Taylor 0, Colton Faddis 7, Islim Ouldtaki 2. Glacier Peak—Zach Hatch 4, Seiver Southard 2, Jack Wygant 2, Brendan Tetrault 7, Justin Guffey 15, Zach Argue 11, Bobby Martin 11, Kyle Dvorak 0.
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