The Arlington Eagle boys basketball team recorded a nifty 78-73 victory over rival Cascade on Jan. 10 behind the overall play of talented senior guard Will Heath.
Heath led the team in scoring with 23 points, and chipped in six rebounds, five assists and a number of steals. While Cascade struggled to solve Heath, the Eagles supporting cast played with energy and enthusiasm, including several key contributions off the bench from Jerad Barber and freshman Zach Cooper.
The first quarter was all Heath as the lanky senior was everywhere for the Eagles. He stole a pass to the wing on Cascades first possession and raced down for an easy deuce at the other end. A minute later Heath finished a layup from a backdoor pass from Tyler Busby, getting fouled in the process. Heath even hit a circus-shot layup, flipping the ball off the backboard over two defenders to give Arlington a 9-7 lead.
Jerad Barber came in off the bench early to inject a lot of energy into the lineup. The speedy Barber managed to make a leaping steal of a Cascade entry pass to start an Eagle fast break. Barber fed the ball ahead to Brad McPherson who returned it to Barber for a layup and a lot of momentum for the Eagles. After one quarter the home team led 20-13, playing some of its best basketball of the year.
In the second quarter young Zach Cooper got a chance to make an impact on the varsity squad. The freshman notched two assists and a layup to give Arlington a huge boost off the bench. Busby got going in the quarter as well, draining jumpshots from all sides of the court. Heath continued his offensive assault as well with seven more points. The Eagles looked dominant going into the half, leading 41-30.
In the third quarter Busby demoralized Cascade with some timely shooting. The Bruins looked to be closing the gap on the Eagles, chipping away at the 11-point lead little by little. But Busby drilled a 3-pointer to jump the lead back up to eight for the Eagles at 53-45, and then hit another big shot to make the score 56-49. No matter how much work Cascade did, they couldnt get any closer than six points.
Arlingtons Caleb Scarth opened the fourth quarter with an easy basket on a long assist from Lucas Larson. The pass sailed over everybody to a waiting Scarth who put Arlington back on top by eight points. The Bruins kept coming and eventually narrowed the margin to four points, on the cusp of a big momentum shift. But Busby came through again with an important defensive rebound. He was fouled and made two free throws to open up the lead again. On the next possession Busby was again fouled and hit two more free throws, securing Arlingtons advantage.
A flurry of Bruin 3-point shots at the end of the game did nothing to change the outcome as the Eagles won 78-73.
I think we still allowed too many points, said Heath. We had to outscore them and step up our defense at the end of the game. The energy level was amazing though, the bench gave us a big boost.
Jerad (Barber) and Brad (McPherson) both stepped up and got us some fast break layups, said Busby after the win. The frosh energy off the bench really helped us.