MILL CREEK — After being victims of a barrage of 3-pointers by Glacier Peak in the first half, Stanwood head coach Zach Ward told his team to keep battling.
He looked to senior Karsten Chaplik, specifically, who answered his coach’s call.
Chaplik scored 15 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter as Stanwood erased a 12-point deficit to defeat Glacier Peak 68-65 in the 3A District 1 championship Saturday night at Jackson High School.
The title is Stanwood’s second championship in the last three seasons.
“We said, ‘You’re the only one in this room that’s ever cut a net down. You know what it feels like. Do you want to do it again?’” Ward said. “He looked and said, ‘Yeah.’ So I said, ‘Let’s do it.’”
Stanwood came out and chipped away in the third quarter and started the fourth with a 14-1 run. Chaplik tied the score midway through the final period with a pair of free throws and got the lead for the Spartans a few seconds later with a midrange jumper.
“We knew we had to get it done in the fourth,” Chaplik said. “It was a really close game and we just managed to get the plays that we needed to get.”
The result was Chaplik returning to the ladder to get his second strand of the net in his Stanwood career.
“It’s awesome cutting it down,” he said. “It’s a great feeling.”
“We got here last year and things didn’t go our way. … We wanted to be back up on this ladder, getting that district title,” Ward said. “These stay in the gym forever. That net, and this trophy, stay in Stanwood High School forever. These guys are a part of history now.”
Skout Roberson scored 13 points and AJ Martinka netted 10 for Stanwood (19-4 overall), which won its 14th consecutive contest.
Both the Spartans and Glacier Peak (18-5) had already qualified for next week’s regional round of the state tournament and will find out their opponents after the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association announces the matchups Sunday night.
“Stanwood’s good,” said Glacier Peak head coach Brian Hunter, who coached with Ward at Stanwood for 10 years before heading to the Grizzlies. “Chaplik was really good in the second half. They made more plays than we did. I thought our kids played really well and played hard. You have to give credit to Stanwood. They just made enough plays. I thought it was a really competitive, high-level game.”
Justin Guffey made seven 3-pointers for the Grizzlies and finished with 24 points. Zach Hatch and Brady Southard added 15 points apiece for Glacier Peak, which made 14 3-pointers and had a 39-29 lead at halftime.
“We just said, ‘This isn’t over,’” Ward said. “If a team shoots the ball as well as they do in the first half we’re going to be in trouble no matter what. … It was just battle, battle, battle. From 10, let’s cut it in half going into the fourth and get momentum.”
In the second half the 3-pointers were harder to come by for the Grizzlies, who missed six consecutive attempts from behind the arc.
“We’ve shot the ball pretty well lately,” Hunter said. “We were hoping we could shoot it tonight. It definitely gave us the bump that we had. But, we went dry there for a little bit in the second half and that’s what caught up to us. … I thought we got some good looks that we were hitting in the first half that we just weren’t knocking down.”
Stanwood 68, Glacier Peak 65
At Jackson H.S.
Glacier Peak20191214—65
Stanwood18111623—68
Glacier Peak—Zach Hatch 15, Brady Southard 15, Seiver Southard 0, Grant Peltier 0, Justin Guffey 24, Brendan Tetrault 9, Jacob Middendorf 2. Stanwood—AJ Martinka 10, Quinton Borseth 7, Bryson Kelley 2, Austin Wilhonen 2, Chase Strieby 0, Cameron Plautz 3, Carlton McDonald 7, Karsten Chaplik 24, Skout Roberson 13. 3-point goals—Hatch 3, B. Southard 1, Tetrault 3, Guffey 7, Plautz 1, McDonald 1, Chaplik 1. Records—Glacier Peak 18-5 overall. Stanwood 19-4.
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