MARYSVILLE — Long before the game ended, the Lake Stevens High School girls basketball team seemed destined to win this one.
The first example came midway through the second quarter, when Vikings guard Mary Ochiltree barely avoided a shot-clock violation by catching a pass and quickly heaving a 15-foot, right-handed scoop shot that somehow dropped through the hoop.
It was that kind of night for Ochiltree and her teammates.
Ochiltree scored a game-high 22 points and Lake Stevens remained undefeated by outlasting the Marysville-Pilchuck Tomahawks 47-40 Wednesday in a Western Conference North Division battle at the M-P gym.
Ochiltree drained three 3-pointers, including one late in the third quarter that banked in off the backboard, and tallied 15 second-half points to help launch Lake Stevens (3-0 Wesco North, 5-0 overall) to another victory.
“We’re due for one of those,” Lake Stevens coach Randall Edens said of Ochiltree’s unorthodox field goals. “It seems like it always happens (against) us.”
Post Britt Harris led Marysville-Pilchuck with nine points and seven rebounds. The Tomahawks (2-2, 5-2) trailed by 10 points at halftime but cut it to 28-26 in the third quarter and 40-37 with 1 minute, 41 seconds to go.
Thanks partly to Lake Stevens’ effective zone defense, M-P shot 16 percent from the field and had only one player (Harris) score more than seven points.
M-P is “always going to play us tough,” Edens said. “I thought we did a really good job of defending tonight. It’s really been a point of emphasis for our team this season, and we’ve got to get better if we’re going to succeed the second half of our season.”
The clash featured three of the division’s elite posts: M-P’s Harris, who came in averaging 16.8 points, and Lake Stevens teammates Brittany Tri and Karri Gallagher. Tri and Gallagher combined to score 21, although M-P held Gallagher scoreless in the second half.
M-P coach Julie Martin said Harris and backup Kylie Fordon played great interior defense. But it left opportunities for Ochiltree, who hurt M-P by making numerous jump shots and 11 free throws.
“We didn’t focus as much on her (but) we should have,” said Martin.
Gallagher, Tri and Ochiltree combined to score all but two of Lake Stevens’ 25 first-half points. The Vikings committed 14 turnovers but still led 25-15 at the break.
In the third quarter M-P used an 11-3 spurt to get within two points, but the Tomahawks never got any closer.
“I am really going to come away from this (loss) with a positive,” Martin said. “I mean, if we hit our layins and hit our outside shots we could’ve come out on top. But we had a lid on the hoop in the first half.”
It was the first time Lake Stevens has been seriously challenged this season. The Vikings outscored their first four opponents by an average of nearly 30 points.
Said Ochiltree, “It gives us a lot more confidence knowing that we finally played a tough team and we stayed together.”
At Marysville-Pilchuck H.S.
Lake Stevens16910 12—47
Marysville-Pilchuck1051114—40
Lake Stevens: Ochiltree 22, Tri 13, Tate, Personius 2, Gallagher 8, Bostwick, Schumacher 2, Goddard, Warbis. Marysville-Pilchuck: Lucas 7, West 7, Peterson 6, Masters 3, Harris 9, Heckendorf, Enberg, Juco, Martinis 4, Fordon 4. 3-point goals-Ochiltree 3, West 1, Peterson 1. JV score-Marysville-Pilchuck 52, Lake Stevens 43. Records-Lake Stevens 3-0 in division, 5-0 overall. Marysville-Pilchuck 2-2, 5-2.
Contact Herald Writer Mike Cane at mcane@heraldnet.com. For more high school sports news, check out the prep sports blog Double Team at www.heraldnet.com/doubleteam.
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