MILL CREEK — The Glacier Peak girls basketball team waited for its toughest stretch of games this season to play its best basketball.
In less than two weeks, the Grizzlies have played Lynnwood, Edmonds-Woodway, Ferndale and in Tuesday’s 3A district 1 tournament semifinals, Arlington — some of the finest 3A girls basketball teams in the state.
After winning 63-55 over Arlington on Tuesday, the Grizzlies are 4-0 in those games. More importantly, the win sends them to next weekend’s state regional round and Saturday’s district championship game against Lynnwood.
“The girls have worked so hard all year and to be where we’re at right now with the league we’re in, I couldn’t be happier,” Glacier Peak head coach Brian Hill said. “It’s great for us to keep playing hard. Arlington just battled and battled and battled. It was a great game. I kind of knew it would be.”
Glacier Peak started the game with a 5-0 run before Arlington was finally able to get on the board. The Eagles kept the game close throughout the first quarter, even taking a lead of 14-13 with 2:04 to play, but the momentum stayed with the Grizzlies.
Arlington’s brief lead turned out to be its only one of the game. Glacier Peak senior Kianna Garner’s 3-pointer as time expired in the first period capped off a 7-0 run for the Grizzlies and gave them a 20-14 lead.
Things got worse for Arlington in the second quarter. The Grizzlies built their lead to as many as 13 and led 35-24 at halftime thanks to their second buzzer-beater of the game, this time a runner by sophomore Paisley Johnson as time expired in the first half.
“We just weren’t making shots,” Arlington head coach Joe Marsh said. “It’s tough in a game like this if you don’t score. We did a way better job in the second half. We came out and we battled. We just didn’t get enough stops.
“We probably had our worst quarter of the year in that second quarter.”
The Eagles made a lot more shots after halftime, but they never did figure out how to get enough stops. Arlington cut the Glacier Peak lead to six several times in the game’s final 16 minutes, but never got any closer.
“We just didn’t get enough stops tonight,” Marsh said. “They’re too good if they score like that. It’s just going to be too tough to come back.”
Johnson made several of those key shots and finished with 15 points for the Grizzlies.
“Paisley just goes 100 miles per hour,” Hill said. “She’s very athletic and she can attack and she can shoot. When the shot clock is winding down she finished a couple of them down the stretch. I know she can probably get to the rack or at least make a good choice to kick it out. Having her athleticism on the court is huge for us.”
Glacier Peak sophomore Kayla Watkins led all scorers with 18.
Arlington now finds itself in a position where it must win its next two games to advance to the state regional round.
“Here we go,” Marsh said. “We put ourselves in this position, now we’ve got to go battle like we’ve done all year and we’ve got to play better than we did tonight.”
The Grizzlies have now qualified for five straight state regional games and five straight district championship games. Lynnwood, the Grizzlies’ opponent in Saturday’s title game, suffered its only league loss of the season to Glacier Peak on Feb. 6.
“Both teams know each other pretty well and we have a history between each other,” Hill said. “It’s always good. It’s just good friendly basketball. It’s going to be a fun game. It will be good.”
At Jackson H.S.
Glacier Peak 20 15 13 15 —63
Arlington 14 10 16 15 —55
Glacier Peak—Paisley Johnson 15, Samantha Fatkin 7, Sadie Mensing 12, Kayla Watkins 18, Natalie Rasmussen 2, Kianna Garner 9. Arlington—Gracie Castaneda 5, Serafina Balderas 2, Sarah Shortt 2, Sevi Bielser 0, Peyton Brown 0, Olivia Larson 0, Emma Janousek 14, Jessica Ludwig 15, Jayla Russ 17. 3-point goals—Watkins 1, Garner 1, Janousek 1, Ludwig 1, Russ 4. Records—Glacier Peak 20-2, Arlington 19-3.
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