SNOHOMISH — It shouldn’t surprise anyone at this point that the Glacier Peak girls basketball team was going to turn to Marjorie Heard to lead it through the playoffs.
The junior scored a game-high 31 points to lead the Grizzlies to a 55-43 victory over Shorecrest in the first round of the Class 3A District 1 tournament Tuesday night at Glacier Peak High School.
Heard is Glacier Peak’s leading scorer and she dominated in the paint, scoring all 22 of her points from the field from short range, usually from directly underneath the basket.
“It’s a good thing we have someone like Marjorie,” Glacier Peak head coach Brian Hill said after the game. “That (was) a big percentage of our points, that helped a lot.”
With the victory, the Grizzlies (14-8 overall) advance to the semifinals to face Ferndale at 6 p.m. Thursday at Mount Vernon High School. Ferndale defeated Lynnwood 67-62 in another first-round game Tuesday night.
Heard’s final two points of the game came from the free-throw line in the closing minute and gave Glacier Peak its largest lead of the game at 55-41.
“We knew that we had to come out hard, we beat them twice and it was a district playoff game,” Heard said. “We had to come out and give it all we got. I think we played pretty well.”
Juniors Hannah Freitas and Miranda Granger added seven and five points, respectively, for Glacier Peak, which entered the district playoffs as the top seed from the Western Conference.
With the loss, the Scots (6-16) drop into the tournament consolation bracket and face Lynnwood in a loser-out game at 6 p.m. on Friday at Mount Vernon High School.
The Scots opened the game strong, taking a one-point lead into the second quarter. But Heard and the Grizzlies got their game together midway through the second period, using a 13-4 run to take a 25-20 lead into the intermission.
“The lull we had in the second quarter hurt us, I thought,” Shorecrest coach Ed Wissing said. “Them getting the lead going into halftime was pretty tough.”
Although the Grizzlies once pushed their lead into double digits late in the third period, the Scots continued to battle. Two lay-ups from Uppinghouse and junior Casey Axelson hitting back-to-back jump shots pulled Shorecrest to within five points at 42-37 midway through the final period.
After that the Grizzlies kept feeding the ball to Heard and she closed the game out by scoring 11 of Glacier Peak’s 13 fourth-quarter points.
Freshman Janie Uppinghouse, Casey Axelson and senior Gloria Tseng each scored 10 points for Shorecrest.
“Our girls worked really hard, they did push (back),” Hissing said. “We have to approach (the next game) with the state of mind that the season isn’t over, we have our work ahead of us.”
At Glacier Peak H.S.
Shorecrest911914—43
Glacier Peak817913—55
Shorecrest—Hagood 4, Tseng 10, Uppinghouse 10, Axelson 10, Lasconia 5, Towles 4, Mattheson 0, Grubaugh 0, Glesener 0, Richards 0, Ruhlman 0, Gamman 0. Glacier Peak—Heard 31, Rasmussen 2, Smith 4, Freitas 7, Hawkins 2, Hill 2, Granger 5, VanDlac 2. 3-point goals—Hagood 1, Uppinghouse 1, Freitas 2. Records—Shorecrest 6-16 overall, Glacier Peak 14-8.
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