MARYSVILLE — Good things happen when you listen to your coach.
Asked by his coach Len Bone to take more of a leadership role in his senior season with the Snohomish Panthers and Zach Wilde has responded in a big way.
Wilde carried the Panthers in the fourth quarter scoring 13 of his game-high 28 points and helping Snohomish hold onto the 65-49 Wesco North victory over Marysville-Pilchuck Friday night at the Marysville gym.
“Zach had a huge game. He scored a lot of points and was efficient with his shots, and played a pretty smart floor game. He maybe put us on his back a little (in the fourth quarter,” Snohomish head coach Len Bone said.
“That’s what coach wants me to do — step up and be a leader,” Wilde said.
The four-year varsity member anchored a Panthers defense that held the Tomahawks to just six first-quarter points and quieted Marysville-Pilchuck standout Taylor Stevens.
Stevens entered the contest averaging 27.3 points per game, but was held to 14 on just 2-for-7 shooting.
Stevens did finish 10-for-12 from the free throw line.
“I think Taylor, for the first time, tried to force some shots up rather than letting them flow from our offense,” Marysville-Pilchuck coach Bary Gould said.
The Tomahawks (0-1 in league, 2-2 overall) turned what looked like an early Snohomish blowout into a closely contested game by closing the Panthers fourth quarter lead to 53-49 with 1:24 remaining in the game.
The Panthers opened the game on an 11-1 run quieting a crowd that came in expecting a clash of two Wesco North powers.
“I was thinking like a 30-point blowout, credit to our guys they flowed with it and played with their whole heart,” Gould said.
Snohomish (1-0, 3-0) closed out the game by sinking 12 of its last 16 free throw attempts and shutting out the Tomahawks in the final minute.
“Overall this was our best game so far,” Bone said, “We competed better.”
Despite trailing by 12 points at the half, Gould was positive that the Tomahawks would cut into the Panthers lead.
“I told them that you have to think of it in terms of baskets not points. We were only six baskets down,” Gould said.
The Tomahawks took advantage of 17 Panther turnovers and poor Snohomish free throw shooting — the Panthers shot 21-for-34 from the line compared to M-P’s 21-for-28 — to cut the lead to five points early in the third quarter.
“Some of our turnovers led to that (M-P’s comeback), some of our missed free throws led to that and some of that was Marysville doing some good things,” Bone said.
Tomahawks forward Colin Thomason had a season-high 15 points and Joey Kelley took advantage of the defense on Stevens finishing with six points.
“We always want to take something from every game and what we took from this game was that taylor doesn’t have to score for us to be successful,” Gould said.
Brad Shaw finished with 10 points for the Panthers, who with the victory avenged their only league loss from a season ago.
Snohomish finished 15-1 in the Wesco North last season dropping its only game at Marysville in the season finale.
At Marysville-Pilchuck H.S.
Snohomish19101027—65
M-P6111616—49
Snohomish—Jeffries 3, Johnson 6, Klop 2, Leahy 2, Low 6, McGinnis 4, Shaw 14, Wilde 28. Marysville-Pilchuck—Greene, Kelly 6, Lanphere 7, Lovell 2, Scheller 5, Stevens 14, Thomason 15. 3-pointers—Shaw 2, Wilde 1, Johnson 1, Thomason 2, Kelly 2. JV—Snohomish defeated M-P. Records—Snohomish 1-0 in league, 3-0 overall. M-P 0-1, 2-2.
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