Always a fun night at the annual Brugullfest. This year Cascade was host, but both fan bases represented well and both were rewarded with victories — the girls for Everett and boys for Cascade. If there is a tiebreaker, it might have been the dance contest held between the mascots at halftime of the girls game. Bruno Bruin ran away with it despite a good effort from the Everett mascot.
The girls game
If the Everett girls basketball team is the fifth best team in Wesco 3A this season (as predicted by the coaches poll), then I will be shocked. I’m not sure who among the top four the Seagulls will finish ahead of, but the Seagulls have looked too good in their first two games to finish behind four teams in the league. I realize the Cascade girls are not seen as much of a threat in the Wesco South, but the Everett defense was preventing them from even getting shots off.
Cascade steals and transition opportunities quickly turned into transition opportunities the other way because of Everett’s quickness and ability to recover. The most impressive stat of the night that did not make it into the game story was that Everett had just two turnovers in the second half. Granted the clock ran for most of the fourth quarter, but that is super low even for a college team, let alone what was essentially Everett’s second best five on the floor.
Calea Carr could make Everett very good well into the future. The Seagulls already boast super sophomore Sidney Rielly, who might be the second-best scorer in Wesco 3A behind Meadowdale’s senior Margreet Barhoum.
Carr made 15 points look very easy in 2.5 quarters against Cascade and led all scorers. Two years ago Everett was 3-17 (playing mostly 4A competition in league), two years from now Carr, Rielly and her sister Darian Rielly (a freshman who scored eight points against Cascade), could very easily be the best backcourt in the county regardless of classification. Carr is still young, having played just her second-ever varsity game, but there were flashes of brilliance and most importantly the defense is there.
Still coach John Low wants to temper expectations a bit. “She has flashes, but she’s still a young player,” he said. “Last year as a freshman she was on JV. This year She can kind of go in streaks. She can be way off on a shot or two and then come back and drill two or three in a row.”
Regardless of how good anyone thinks Everett will be, the team will be much better than we’ve seen in recent years from the Seagulls, who have been an afterthought in the 3A district tournament, “We are really trying to lay the foundation this year for the next couple years,” Low said.
Last Year Sidney Rielly’s offense made people pay attention to Everett, but it looks like Low has his team’s focus on defense and that could spell trouble for the rest of Wesco 3A. “Defense wins games so it’s going to take us far, because if we stop teams they can’t score and we can score,” senior Jody Barhanovich said. Barhanovich is one of only two Seagulls who aren’t at least 5-foot-8.
Though the Eagles don’t have a 6-4 center and their tallest player is 6-1 sophomore Amber Hagar, their length up and down the lineup will give teams fits. What should be scary for future Everett opponents is they haven’t even really been able to dip into their bag off tricks defensively due to the first two games getting out of hand quickly. “There’s some things we have been working on in practice that we haven’t even done because of how the games have been,” Low said. “We aren’t trying to run it up, but we just tell them play hard.” Everett beat Sedro-Wooley 74-7 in the season opener.
Not much to say about the Cascade girls, who had trouble all night against the Seagulls. They never really got into their offense, making just four field goals, and coach Ed Bowers knows it. “We did struggle trying to run our offense,” he said. “They got us out of our offense with their pressure and kept us off balance.”
From what I saw there doesn’t seem to be a definitive leader on the Cascade side, they may need someone to take charge and put the team on her back on offense if they are going to have success.
The boys game
I only saw about 30 percent of the boys game, because of working on the girls story for the newspaper. What I did see was the end when it was all but decided, so not much insight into the Cascade boys’ convincing 80-53 win. Bruins 6-5 center Steven Gallardo gives Cascade toughness inside and he put up 29 points, but I didn’t see much of it. Point guard DuSean Shankle scored 19 and showed that he can hit contested 3s, but it seems like Cascade will go as far as its defense takes them. We will see very shortly if they can push around a much deeper Kamiak team like they did against Everett.
The Everett boys are young with just three seniors and will be much better next year. Senior Unikque Thibou looked like the best guard and sophomore Cortez Carr is 6-6 could use some bulk. He made his share of plays against Gallardo, but got pushed around a bit.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
