The Marysville Getchell boys basketball team got punched in the mouth on Friday, then got up and won the fight.
The Chargers fell behind 26-8 after the first quarter, but charged back, no pun intended, to win 69-62 behind the 24 points of guard Elijah Jordan.
After the game, I was left with a pretty good impression of two teams that could be considered up-and-coming. The Chargers showed a lot of heart and poise in coming back to earn the victory and the Cougars proved early on that they can be an incredibly hard defense to deal with.
For the Marysville Getchell program, just in its second year of existence. This could be the type of win that is referenced down the road when the team reaches its potential. To get thoroughly dominated the way the Chargers did for nearly two quarters and to come back shows a lot of heart. The way the game was going it would have been very easy to pack it in and get ready for another night, but the Chargers refused to do that.
Getchell also has some very impressive players on its squad that probably don’t get a lot of attention. Jordan led the way, he’s very quick and athletic and he has a nice three-point shot. Also impressive was guard Nathen Grimm, who scored 22 points. Grimm is gritty and does the little things very well. He can penetrate as well as shoot the outside shot and seemed to really be one of the sparks in the second half for the Chargers. I was also impressed with Omar Sakin-Romulus. Sakin-Romulus has a good-looking jump shot and a pretty fadeaway to match. I left the game thinking he was capable of doing a bit more offensively, but he did have a nice game, finishing with 11 points. Perhaps he could have done more, but with Jordan and Grimm leading the way he didn’t really have to.
Kaleb Seymer also provided a spark for the Chargers. He was active on the boards and had a few key steals in the second half. His intensity really showed when his brother Zander was forced to leave the game in the second half with an ankle injury.
So my overall impression of the Chargers is that this is a team that has a lot of potential and by the end of the season could be a darkhorse poised to make a little noise at districts.
As for the Cougars, they will need a lot more quarters like the first and a lot less like the third and fourth. With that said, the pressure and trapping defense that they showed in the first quarter gave the Chargers fits. If they can find a way to keep that up against their Cascade Conference opponents for four quarters this team could also be a darkhorse in the 2A district 1 tournament.
As if Justin Peterson needed to be good at something else, he proved to be quite the serviceable basketball player on Friday. Peterson is fun to watch because he can do everything. He can score, but he also facilitates his teammates and is very active on the glass. When he fouled out late in the fourth quarter, the Cougars offense obviously struggled.
Paul Coleman also showed well for the Cougars finishing with a team-high 17 points. Coleman proved that he can be a scorer when needed and has a very good three-point shot.
These are two teams that we don’t get to see much of, but the trip to Lakewood on Friday was well worth it. This was a very entertaining game that had a little bit of everything.
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