OAK HARBOR – Snohomish coach Len Bone kept waiting for his team to play better defense. He eventually got his wish.
After struggling a bit defensively in the first half, the Snohomish Panthers boys basketball team clamped down in the final 10-plus minutes, limiting the Oak Harbor Wildcats to just two points during the stretch and turning a close game into a 58-39 victory Tuesday night in a Western Conference North Division clash at Oak Harbor High. Elizabeth Armstrong / The Herald
Tanner Jenkins scored 11 of his team-high 21 points in the pivotal third quarter for Snohomish, which remained undefeated at 4-0 in division and 6-0 overall. The taller, deeper Panthers trailed 37-36 with 2:43 to go in the third but outscored Oak Harbor 22-2 the rest of the way.
“We played better defense … and got some easy baskets,” Bone said. “We just seemed to have a little bit more togetherness.”
In a matchup of the North’s last undefeated teams, Snohomish ultimately had too much size and depth for a much-improved Oak Harbor team (2-1, 3-1). Rodrick Rumble’s 15 points led the Wildcats, who won just two games over the previous two seasons.
“We ran out of gas,” said Rumble, a high-flying forward who scored 11 points in the first half. “They’re a really big team so we couldn’t really (stay with them) through the whole game.”
Snohomish, ranked No. 6 in the WashingtonPreps.com Class 4A preseason poll, is tied for first in the North with Stanwood (4-0, 4-2).
Jenkins (6-5), Zach Wilde (6-5), Tim Diederichs (6-8) and Stuart Shilling (6-5) spearheaded Snohomish’s interior dominance. They combined to score 49 points, more than 84 percent of the team’s total.
Jenkins scored six points during Snohomish’s 12-0 run to end the third quarter. He has scored 39 points in the past two games.
“He’s got a lot of talent,” Bone said. “I don’t think anybody expects him to put up big numbers. He’s not one of our (big) names. Tanner’s kind of a blue-collar, hard worker and he does a real good job at both ends of the floor.”
Diederichs (12 points) scored six in the first quarter, all from in close, to help Snohomish build a 17-8 lead. But Oak Harbor, which had seven turnovers in the first eight minutes, started taking care of the ball and got back in it. The Wildcats began the second quarter with a 6-0 run, including the last four points on two Rumble layins.
Oak Harbor trailed by five at the intermission (29-24) and twice led in the third quarter before fading.
The difference, Oak Harbor coach Mike Washington said, was Snohomish’s depth. The Panthers relied on a number of substitutes to play important minutes, while Oak Harbor’s rotation was essentially limited to six players. Fatigue caught up with Washington’s squad.
“It was like we fell off a cliff,” Washington said. “We were (in the game) but we just ran out of gas. They wore us down.”
Wilde scored just two points in the third quarter but he made two outstanding passes that led to easy layins, one for Shilling and one for Jenkins.
“We started making some better passes and it opened up the game for us,” said Wilde.
James Leach and Dallas Heidt scored six points apiece for Oak Harbor, which missed a barrage of long-range jump shots down the stretch and didn’t score over the final 6:21. Still, Oak Harbor impressed its opponent.
“They’re a good team,” Bone said. “They’ve got a lot of good athletes, No. 1. I think they’ve got a chance to (advance to) the playoffs this year.”
Said Washington, “The end score does not reflect the game accurately. I’m proud of the kids.”
At Oak Harbor
Snohomish17121910-58
Oak Harbor816132-39
Snohomish-Bone 5, M. Low 2, Wilde 8, Jenkins 21, Diederichs 12, Shilling 8, Johnson 2. Oak Harbor- Rumble 15, Lobbestael 5, Leach 4, Heidt 6, Koorn 4, McCardle 3. 3-point goals-Bone 1, Lobbestael 1, McCardle 1. JV score-Snohomish 74, Oak Harbor 20. Records-Snohomish 4-0 in division, 6-0 overall. Oak Harbor 2-1, 3-1.
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