MONROE — The Snohomish girls’ basketball team faced a crisis after losing their Jan. 7 game to King’s.
With his Panthers standing one defeat away from equaling their loss total from last season, head coach Ken Roberts got his group together after a practice last week and challenged them to return to their identity of post-first basketball and active defense.
Since then, the Panthers have gone 2-0 against the best Wesco 3A/2A North basketball has to offer, defeating Stanwood at home last week and cruising to a 63-36 win over Monroe on Wednesday night. The Monroe victory helped maintain Snohomish’s league lead, as it improved to 9-5 overall and 4-0 in league play. The Bearcats, who lacked senior star Cascadia Yates in the post due to a second missed game because of a concussion, dropped to 7-7 and 2-2 against league rivals.
Snohomish’s attempts a jump shot during the game against Monroe on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025 in Monroe, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Senior Tyler Gildersleeve-Stiles has been instrumental in Snohomish’s turnaround, posting 20 points in Wednesday’s win and 42 over her past two outings combined.
“I think we’re starting to round out a little bit,” Gildersleeve-Stiles said of the recent success. “We still had a couple of blips a couple of weeks ago, but we’re definitely getting to where we need to be, especially for districts.”
Forcing turnovers and working the offensive glass has been this team’s calling card so far. The Panthers were able to stretch a 26-13 advantage midway through the second to a 46-13 blowout in the third as a product of those two strengths. That nine-minute stretch of nearly perfect defense turned the game around, but Snohomish head coach Ken Roberts wanted to see more from his team after that prolonged run.
Monroe outscored the Panthers 23-17 from that point forward, and while one may argue those closing minutes aren’t meaningful in a lopsided contest, Roberts sees room for improvement.
“The first two-and-a-half quarters we played really good basketball, and then we didn’t play quite as well as we subbed a little more at the end and didn’t keep attacking with the next group,” Roberts said.
For the Bearcats, there were still stretches of solid basketball to build on. Senior Halle Keller had a team-high 10 points on some tough shotmaking around the rim and was tasked with defending the larger Gildersleeve-Stiles in the absence of Yates. Keller wants to see her team compete as they did late in the loss more often.
“We just need to build on being aggressive throughout the whole game,” Keller said. “It was just hard to get our momentum going… we were really one-dimensional this game.”
Monroe’s Hope Keller and Mya Mercille scramble on the ground for the ball with Snohomish’s Lizzie Allyn during the game on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025 in Monroe, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Monroe head coach Tyson Horner liked his team’s effort level on the defensive end, given they were short a key piece in Yates. But offensively, he noticed forced passing into Snohomish traps and ball denials.
“Honestly, just the fundamentals of basketball… reading the defense and making accurate passes to our high post and low post,” Horner said of what Monroe can improve on from the loss. “They ran a great little zone defense, they’re tough and you don’t get a lot of second chances either.”
Monroe’s own zone defense struggled at times, as their attempts to double Gildersleeve-Stiles early led to some early 3s for senior Cora Larson (nine points) and sophomore Lizzie Allyn (six points).
“We probably should’ve made some adjustments sooner to go to man (defense),” Horner said. “We were really focused on limiting (Gildersleeve-Stiles’) looks and got too focused on that.”
Every game is a learning experience, especially considering these teams will face each other again in two weeks. Still, Wednesday night’s outcome means the Bearcats will need some help in the way of Snohomish losses to compete for the league crown.
For now, Monroe will prepare for Friday’s tilt at another contender in Stanwood while Snohomish will host Everett that same night.
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