SNOHOMISH — While most were letting the game come to them, Glacier Peak point guard Austin Petz stayed one step ahead.
A feed off a backdoor cut, penetration and pass, fullcourt finds, a slick bounce pass to a teammate off an offensive rebound — odds were when a Grizzly scored Friday night against Jackson, Petz had something to do with it.
Glacier Peak coach Brian Hunter highlighted his team’s defense and hustle as the main contributors to the Grizzlies’ 6-0 start. Add in unselfish play, and Petz embodied all those traits during GP’s 64-41 win against Wesco 4A rival Jackson in a lively atmosphere at Glacier Peak High School.
Petz recorded 12 of the Grizzlies’ 21 assists and also hauled in a game-high eight rebounds. Not bad for a 5-foot-7 point guard.
“He is relentless,”Hunter said of Petz. “I have never ever seen him take a play off, and I think that is a tribute to him as a kid. He is a guy who works really hard, and the kids feed off him. When you see your point guard going that hard, it’s really hard to be a guy who doesn’t put that effort in, because you want to try to match what he is doing.”
Petz had plenty of help. He wouldn’t have logged those assist totals without some stellar shooting, and the Grizzlies delivered — namely Seiver Southard, who scored a game-high 23 points. Sixteen of those came during the second half, and the senior guard finished with five 3-pointers. Bobby Martin added 16 points to go with seven boards and four assists.
While the Grizzlies extended their winning streak to six to start the season, for Jackson the loss wrapped up what’s been a tumultuous week in which the Timberwolves have lost three games in four days after opening the year 3-0.
Parker Manalo offered Jackson a bright spot, finishing with a team-high 15 points, while Ian Willgress had 10.
Manalo took over at times and supplied the T-wolves some much needed offense, allowing Jackson to keep within striking distance, but the T-wolves couldn’t slow Glacier Peak’s attack, especially with Petz manning the controls.
Glacier Peak led 20-10 early in the second quarter when Petz assisted on three consecutive field goals. He found Martin with a fullcourt pass for a layup and then Petz delivered a textbook bounce pass to Martin off a backdoor cut for another layup before feeding Nick Bates for an easy score in transition.
“If the guys are open, I’ll give them the ball,” Petz said. “I don’t really care who is scoring as long as we are scoring. As long as they are open, I’m happy.”
Jackson scored the final four points of the second quarter to trim Glacier Peak’s lead to 31-22 at halftime, but the Grizzlies opened the second half with a 10-2 run that captured the game’s momentum and essentially put Jackson out of reach.
Southard accounted for seven of those points, and Bo Burns, who finished with nine points on three 3-pointers, knocked down a triple during the two-minute scoring spurt.
“We talked about it at halftime of finishing and playing four quarters,” Hunter said. “We wanted to make sure that we came out in the third quarter and focused on every possession. Didn’t really think about the offensive end. We were thinking about the defensive end and creating opportunities out of that. I think our kids bought it, and that’s why we ended up getting the looks we got.”
Glacier Peak’s lead grew to 50-32 by the end of the third, and 17 points was the closest Jackson got to Glacier Peak the rest of the way.
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