Stanwood girls basketball hands Jackson first loss

Published 8:30 am Friday, December 19, 2025

STANWOOD — In a battle of undefeateds at Stanwood High School on Thursday, the first half between Stanwood girls basketball and Jackson was as close as could be expected.

Between air-tight defense around the perimeter leading each side into shots that just wouldn’t fall, the score sat at 7-7 after the first quarter before Stanwood crept into a 19-14 lead at halftime. Heading into the locker room, the Stanwood girls did not feel discouraged by their low shooting percentage. The team felt they were putting together solid possessions, and the conversations boiled down to: “Keep shooting. Don’t give up.”

“We were just talking to each other,” Stanwood senior Stella Berrett said. “Because I feel like if we don’t talk about it, then people get nervous and feel like they’re messing up.”

Berrett opened the second half by finishing off a passing sequence in the post to extend the lead to 21-14. Senior Ellalee Wortham stole the ball back on the ensuing Jackson possession, and the ball made its way back down low to Berrett, who kicked it out to senior Presley Harris for a 3-pointer just 45 seconds into the quarter.

With the lead stretched to 10 and the team now in a rhythm, the Spartans (6-0) outscored the Timberwolves (6-1) 26-9 in the third quarter before settling at a 52-44 win.

After starting the season with a couple of one-point victories, Stanwood has won their last four games by respective margins of 20, 18, 31 and eight on Thursday, when they stretched their lead to 24 early in the fourth quarter before a surge of late 3’s from Jackson trimmed the final score line. Despite the strong start, Spartans coach Dustin Swanson still sees room for more.

“I don’t think that we’re rolling. I think that we’re growing,” Swanson said. “We’re still trying to find our rhythm. But at this point in the season, doing that and getting wins, I will take it. … There’s not the same story, every game has a little bit (of) something different, but I like their effort, their attitude, their connectedness, so we’re just learning and hopefully growing.”

Wortham led the Spartans with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Harris hit four 3-pointers to finish with 12 points, three rebounds and two blocks. Berrett chipped in eight points, four rebounds and two steals.

Through their first six games, the Timberwolves had not scored fewer than 52 points in a game, and did not allow an opponent to eclipse 45. Stanwood changed that on Thursday.

“I think we do a really good job holding ourselves at a high standard,” Harris said. “(…) So I think holding them to that was really important, and just our defensive energy as a whole.”

Junior Alexis Eichhorn scored a game-high 18 points for Jackson, and freshman Camille Phaysith added 14. The duo combined to hit nine 3-pointers, but most came in the later stages with the game already out of reach. Coach Andrew Grinaker said the Timberwolves were missing one starter due to injury while another is dealing with the flu, and he felt like the girls ran out of gas playing a demanding 2-3 zone on defense, which held up well in the first half.

“Stanwood always does a phenomenal job at executing on offense, and so we knew that it had to come down to playing really good defense to give ourselves a chance,” Grinaker said. “And I think we just let up a little bit there in the third quarter and that ended up being the difference in the game.”

After the low-scoring first quarter, during which the Spartans missed at least 10 field goal attempts before Harris hit a 3 to tie it 7-7 with less than 20 seconds left, Wortham opened the second with a corner 3 to give Stanwood the lead. The Timberwolves responded by passing around before finding junior Hayden Andrina down low on the next possession to cut it to 10-9.

The Spartans would go back up by three after a Harris rebound and outlet pass to Wortham for a layup, but the next three total possessions — two from Jackson — would end in shot clock violations as the defenses clamped down on both ends. It nearly happened on a third consecutive Timberwolves possession, but Phaysith hit a driving layup as the clock expired to cut it to 12-11 with around three minutes left in the half.

“I think our on-ball pressure and communication is a really big key,” Harris said. “(…) Making sure that we’re cutting down their best shots, and I feel like we did really well (with) that in the second half, with communicating with each other and making sure that they were getting those shot clock violations and stuff.”

Stanwood finished the quarter on a 7-3 run with two scores from Berrett and capped by a 3-pointer from sophomore Addy Schuh with 15 seconds left before pulling away in the third as the shots finally started to fall.

Following back-to-back Jackson 3’s to cut the score to 24-20, Harris hit a corner 3 before Wortham added three more going coast-to-coast and nailing the ‘And-1’ to go back up by 10 with five minutes left in the quarter. Senior Mylee LaComb kept things rolling with a 3-pointer from the top of the key, then securing an offensive rebound two possessions later and connecting with Wortham for a backdoor layup to make it 38-23.

“I feel like getting the ball inside, getting paint touches (was key),” Berrett said about the team’s third-quarter surge. “Because our paint-touch 3’s, we have a lot higher percentage for makes. So once we started getting it in the key, I feel like we started hitting all our 3’s.”

Stanwood closed the frame with junior Camrie Ingram nailing a post move to open up a close shot for herself before Harris swished an elbow 3 as time expired to make it 45-23. The Timberwolves hit six 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, but they ran out of runway to get back into the game. Each team has one more game before the holiday break, which will provide both coaches with time to evaluate around the one-third point of the season.

“This has been the real first true test for us this year,” Grinaker said. “Which is going to be great going into the holiday break. We’ll figure out what we need to work on.”