Brown ties school record as Arlington girls top Stanwood 79-58

ARLINGTON — Peyton Brown quickly made Arlington head coach Joe Marsh’s job really easy.

The Eagles freshman came off the bench and immediately started swishing 3-pointers to help Arlington pull ahead against Stanwood. Marsh says he never pulls someone after they make a 3-pointer and Brown continued to make them throughout the game.

Brown finished with 28 points — and nine 3-pointers — and the Arlington team finished with 16 threes— tying a school record — as the Eagles defeated Stanwood 79-58 Wednesday night at Arlington High School.

The victory clinches a Wesco 3A North title for the Eagles.

“Unbelievable,” Arlington head coach Joe Marsh said. “We know she can shoot it. I said, ‘Hey, if you get a look you’re going to take it.’ And she hits a couple and she kept hitting them all night long tonight. I’m pretty sure it’s a school record.”

The first of Brown’s 3-pointers came as the buzzer sounded to end the first quarter. She added four more in the second quarter to help Arlington to a 39-25 lead at halftime.

The freshman guard, who is the daughter of Arlington boys head coach Nick Brown, netted one of three 3-point attempts in the third quarter and three more in the fourth quarter as the Eagles closed the game out.

“What we wanted to do was get out and take away the three,” said Stanwood head coach Dennis Kloke. “… We knew they do two things: they shoot threes and they take the ball to the hoop.”

It wasn’t just Brown who was having success from behind the 3-point arc. Sevi Bielser made four 3-pointers and finished with 14 points and Gracie Castaneda scored 15 points for Arlington (8-0 league, 16-2 overall), which completed the season sweep of Stanwood (7-2, 15-4).

“I wish I could take credit for the shooting but there’s nothing magical we do,” Marsh said. “There were great performances all down the line. Great performance from Peyton and from Sevi shooting, Gracie had a great game. Jessica Ludwig got through some foul trouble. All these girls battled and did a great job tonight.”

The Wesco 3A North title was something the Eagles had been eyeing since the start of the season. Arlington, which won the past two Wesco 4A North titles, switched to the 3A classification prior to the start of the 2014-15 school year.

The switch hasn’t changed the outcome for the Eagles’ basketball team.

“We’ve done it the last two years in 4A and we wanted to do it again,” Marsh said. “That was on the top of our list of goals this year. It’s about putting yourself in a good position going into playoffs and getting a good spot.

“Our goal now is to start looking toward district playoffs and that 3A district tournament is going to be a doozy because there’s a lot of really, really good teams.”

Five of the eight teams in the loaded 3A District 1 tournament are ranked in the Associated Press top 10: No. 1 Lynnwood, No. 5 Glacier Peak, No. 6 Arlington, No. 7 Ferndale and No. 10 Edmonds-Woodway.

Stanwood will also be in the mix at districts and hopes to learn from its matchup with Arlington. Tristan Murphy scored 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds and Julia Heichel added 11 points for the Spartans, who were playing without guard Ashley Bierer who was out sick.

“We have a real tough time in our practice simulating the quickness and the speed that Arlington has,” Kloke said. “That speed hurts us. … I thought Haley Strowbridge (nine points) played really well. Tristan Murphy always competes. She didn’t get to touch the ball much because their defense took us out of our offense.”

At Arlington H.S.

Stanwood 9 16 12 21 —58

Arlington 22 17 21 19 —79

Stanwood—Kayla Frazier 6, Kylie Wright 3, Julia Heichel 11, Jillian Heichel 7, Haley Strowbridge 9, Kaitlin Larson 9, Ashley Alter 0, Tristan Murphy 13. Arlington—Gracie Castaneda 15, Serafina Balderas 7, Sarah Shortt 0, Sevi Bielser 13, Brittany DeNike 0, Olivia Larson 0, Emma Janousek 1, Emmi Modahl 0, Jessica Ludwig 7, Abby Anderson 0, Jayla Russ 8, Peyton Brown 28. 3-point goals—Ju. Heichel 2, Strowbridge 2, Larson 1, Castaneda 1, Balderas 1, Bielser 4, Russ 1, Brown 9. Records—Stanwood 7-2 league, 15-4 overall. Arlington 8-0, 16-2.