ARLINGTON — Leyton Martin would not be denied, and the Arlington High School boys basketball team is headed back to the Tacoma Dome.
Arlington’s star point guard did it all, erupting for 43 points and making plays at every key juncture, leading the Eagles to a thrilling 76-72 overtime victory over the Marysville Getchell Chargers in a loser-out Class 3A state regional game Saturday night at Arlington High School.
Martin finished at the rim, feathered jump shots softly into the net and lived at the free-throw line. He also had eight rebounds, five assists and spent much of the second half guarding Getchell star guard Bubba Palacol as Arlington made it three-for-three in white-knuckle matchups against the Chargers this season.
”As a coach you just let him go,” Arlington coach Nick Brown said about Martin’s performance. “You don’t want to say too much or do too much because you want to get the ball in his hands.”
Silas Miller added nine points on three well-timed 3-pointers, and Jake Willis and Billy Kooy each added eight for 11th-seeded Arlington (19-6), which advanced to face No. 3 Garfield in the round of 12 at 9 a.m. Wednesday at the Tacoma Dome. It is the Eagles’ second straight year reaching the dome.
“It feels great, we’re back to where we want to be,” said Martin, who after the game bellowed “back to back” repeatedly. “Now we have to get another, keep advancing and place this year.
“I got my groove a little bit,” Martin added about his own effort. “They got me the ball in the right places and it all just worked out.”
Arlington junior guard Leyton Martin drives on Marysville Getchell’s Bubba Palocol during a playoff matchup at Arlington High School on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, in Arlington, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Shawn Etheridge kept 19th-seeded Getchell in it, scoring all 10 of the Chargers’ points in overtime en route to 29. Wyatt Harris added 14 points and Palacol scored 13 for Getchell, which finished its season 19-7. It is the fifth time Getchell’s season has ended in the regional round since 2014.
“I know Leyton did a lot, but everybody stepped up and made plays,” Brown said. “(The Chargers) were really prepared for us. If you take the three games it was a 10-point difference between us. That says a lot about both programs, I can’t say enough about how good they are, they gave us everything we could handle. They’re one of the top teams in state and they’re going home. That’s not fair.”
Saturday’s game was an enticing back-and-forth encounter in which the teams were rarely separated by more than one possession, and Arlington spent much of the fourth quarter playing from behind. It was Martin who pulled the Eagles back ahead, converting a 3-point play, setting up Willis for a 3 and sinking four free throws to give Arlington a 62-20 lead with 1 minute, 8 seconds remaining in regulation. Etheridge, whose quick first step caused Arlington trouble all night, drove for a bucket on the ensuing possession to knot it at 62-62. Neither team could convert the rest of the way as the game appropriately headed to overtime.
In OT, Arlington’s Jacoby Falor wound up wide open for a 3-pointer when Getchell’s Mariano Palacol went down with a cramp, and that gave the Eagles the initiative. A Martin drive and two more Martin free throws stretched the lead to six, and the Chargers didn’t get closer than four the rest of the way.
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