MONROE — The Stanwood boys basketball team has a deceptively simple goal.
Play more than 20 games.
Led by Zach Johnson’s game-high 19 points and with the help of a key defensive adjustment, the Spartans took a step toward that goal with a 52-44 victory over Monroe in a Western Conference North Division game Tuesday night at Monroe High School.
With just 20 games on their regular season schedule, the Spartans have found a sly way of saying they’re looking to the postseason.
“We want to play more than 20 games,” Johnson said. “We want to play through districts, last year we struggled in districts, so this year we want to go all the way in districts.”
And beyond the district tournament? How about the state playoffs?
“State would be an extra,” Johnson said with a laugh. “State would be awesome, but one goal at a time.”
Johnson scored 13 of his points in the second half — including eight in the final period — to help Stanwood pull away from the Bearcats, who fell behind early but rallied back to tie the score at 22-22 at the intermission.
Monroe used a 13-2 run in the second quarter to pull ahead with 2:36 remaining in the period — the Bearcats’ first lead since the opening minutes of the game. Tim Pearl scored six of Monroe’s points on the run and Jason Waltman added two.
Stanwood closed the half on a 6-0 run, but returned after the break with a different defensive outlook.
“That first half I thought (Monroe) got a lot of points in the paint,” Spartans head coach Zach Ward said. “So we made some adjustments and in the second half … we did make them shoot outside.”
Stanwood’s defensive shift proved decisive. The Bearcats were unable to solve the Spartans’ zone inside, and went cold shooting from outside, missing six shots from beyond the arc in the final two quarters.
“We struggled with (Pearl), he did a really good job of getting around us,” Johnson said. “We were working hard but we had to go back to our zone and that seemed to work for us.”
Pearl scored just two of his 12 points after the intermission. Waltman finished with a team-high 13 points, including nine in the second half, but it wasn’t enough to cut the lead Johnson and the Spartans built in the final period.
Even though Monroe struggled against the Spartans’ zone, the Bearcats kept the game close, holding Stanwood’s lead at the start of the fourth quarter to just 35-31. But shooting woes and turnovers combined to limit the Bearcats’ chances and Johnson helped the Spartans pull away.
“We made some little mistakes,” Monroe head coach Brett Wille said. “Sometimes you go cold on offense, but if you can’t stop them on defense it doesn’t matter.”
At Monroe H.S.
Stanwood1481317 —52
Monroe913913—44
Stanwood—Klemper 2, Orcutt 5, Williams 4, Johnson 19, Zweber 7, Lawrence 2, Schmidt 9, Edlund 4 Monroe—Ohlsen 5, Wright 2, Pearl 12, Waltman 13, MacIntyre 6 Shelford 1, Lucke 1, Bunge 4. 3-point goals—Orcutt 1, Ohlsen 1. Records—Stanwood 7-3 in division, 8-6 overall. Monroe 4-5, 7-6.
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