Mariner’s Minor adjustment

EVERETT — Given a second chance, Michael Minor proved he learned his lesson.

In the first quarter Friday, Minor, a guard on the Mariner High School boys basketball team, stole the ball and cruised in alone for a layup. One big problem: He missed.

Fast-forward to the fourth quarter, when Minor and the Marauders were fending off the determined Meadowdale Mavericks in a key Western Conference South Division game. After Meadowdale sliced a double-digit Mariner lead to four points, Minor stole the ball near midcourt and once again had a breakaway try.

This time, he finished it.

Minor’s huge basket with 35 seconds to go helped Mariner outlast Meadowdale 64-56 at the Mariner High gym. With the regular season winding down, Mariner improved its division record to 12-2 and is tied with Mountlake Terrace for first place in the Wesco South. Meadowdale (11-3), which came into the game tied with Mariner, dropped to third place.

Minor scored 17 of his team-high 22 points in the first half and grabbed eight rebounds for Mariner, which increased its winning streak to five and has won eight of nine. Minor’s final basket, the timely fast-break layin, helped set up a big showdown between Mariner and Mountlake Terrace (12-2) on Tuesday.

“I just wanted to make sure I got it in. I just tried to lay it up nice and soft,” Minor said.

Mariner and Mountlake Terrace already have clinched Class 4A District 1 tournament berths. They’re jostling for seeding and a league title. Edmonds-Woodway upset Terrace 61-56 in overtime Friday.

Post Damascus Purnell (12 points), guard Tevin Dillon (10 points) and post Nick Malysheff (10 points) fueled a balanced Mariner attack. Purnell and Malysheff had eight rebounds apiece.

Roger O’Neill had another stellar outing for Class 3A Meadowdale, tallying 24 points, including five 3-point shots. O’Neill, a senior guard who this week verbally committed to play for Saint Martin’s University in Lacey, made his final 3-pointer from 2 feet behind the line, cutting Mariner’s lead to 57-53 with 1 minute, 19 seconds remaining. But the Mavericks didn’t get any closer.

The deciding factor, Meadowdale head coach Chad McGuire said, was Mariner’s efficient play on offense, starting in the second quarter. The Marauders were a combined 17-for-24 (70.8 percent) from the field in the middle quarters.

“We tried everything. We just couldn’t stop them. They executed like a machine,” McGuire said.

Minor scored 10 of Mariner’s 24 second-quarter points, alternately slicing through the middle for acrobatic layins and drilling mid-range jump shots.

“He basically put us on his shoulders and carried us,” Mariner head coach Dexter Griffen said.

Mariner was down by six (17-11) in the first quarter but was nearly unstoppable the rest of the first half, scoring the final four points of the first period and outscoring Meadowdale 24-14 in the second quarter, taking a 39-31 advantage by halftime.

“The kids did a good job of moving the ball, finding the open man and finishing,” Griffen said.

Mariner’s largest lead of the half was 11 points (33-22), which it reached with a 9-0 scoring run. Dillon finished the spurt with a steal and three-point play on a leaning layin.

Meadowdale made it interesting when it generated an 8-0 scoring eruption that began early in the fourth quarter. It wasn’t enough though.

“I liked the way our guys battled,” coach McGuire said. “We kept coming at them and kept coming at them, and we just couldn’t get over the hump.”

At Mariner H.S.

Meadowdale1714718—56

Mariner15241312—64

Meadowdale — O’Neill 24, Surur 10, Kyobe 8, Hamlett 8, Larson 2, Beucherie, Carroll 4, Coleman, Johnson. Mariner — Minor 22, Doerscher 5, Dillon 10, Malysheff 10, Purnell 12, McCulloch 2, Yusuf, Stepura, Kiehl 3, Zerahaimanot. 3-point goals — O’Neill 5, Surur 2, Minor 1, Doerscher 1, Kiehl 1. Records — Meadowdale 11-3 in division, 12-4 overall. Mariner 12-2, 13-3.

Writer Mike Cane: mcane@heraldnet.com. Check out the prep sports blog Double Team at www.heraldnet.com/doubleteam.