The Arlington Eagle boys basketball team played extremely well for 16 minutes against the powerhouse Snohomish Panther team in their meeting Dec. 14.
Arlington got big contributions from Lucas Larson and Will Heath as they hung around on the scoreboard. But injury to guard Cole Carpenter and foul trouble for starting post Tyler Busby derailed the Eagles effort and the Panthers pulled away in the second half for a 75-52 victory.
Carpenters injury took place in the first quarter on a baseline drive to the basket. After scoring five early points, Carpenter jumped over a defenders outstretched leg and landed awkwardly. He went to the bench to be attended by the trainers and was unable to return to action.
Further damaging the Eagles chances were two ticky-tack foul calls against post Tyler Busby who looked incredulously at the referees. Losing two starters put the Eagles in a bind, needing big contributions from their remaining players to stay competitive. Larson took care of that with several impressive first quarter plays. He registered a huge block on Snohomishs center, swatting the ball out of bounds to inject the team with some energy. Then, toward the end of the first quarter Larson nailed back-to-back three pointers to give Arlington a 17-11 advantage. The second of the two was set up by a Heath steal and assist along the left wing.
In the second quarter A.J. Richardson got the Eagles going with a feed down low to Brad McPherson for two. Heath then took over the game for a stretch, starting with a baseline leaner. Heath grabbed an offensive rebound and putback on the next possession, then scored inside on a pass from McPherson. Heath then pickpocketed a Snohomish guard for an easy layup and a 31-28 Arlington lead. But Arlington got stuck on 31 as Snohomish made an 8-0 run to close the half. After two quarters Arlington trailed 36-31, despite outplaying Snohomish for most of the evening.
In the third quarter Arlingtons injury and foul trouble began to wreak havoc on the offense. Losing 28 ppg of scoring was too much to overcome as Snohomish continued their strong play. The Panthers went on another run to open the half, leading 49-33 before Larson drained a three to stop the bleeding. Freshman Blake Peterson, seeing his first varsity action, scored inside to cut the deficit to 54-38.
In the fourth Caleb Scarth scored twice around the bucket to pull Arlington within 12. Busby also got involved after finding himself on the bench for much of the game due to foul trouble. He went straight to the rim in the middle of a 2-3 zone and scored while drawing a foul. The next possession he took a pass from Larson on a cut and scored again for Arlington. But the Eagles could not trim Snohomishs lead to anything less than 12. In the end the Panthers guards shot too well for Arlington.
Cole going out hurt us, said Coach Nick Brown after the game, but we hung in there and played aggressively in the first half. I didnt want to play man-to-man defense against them because of the size concerns, but their guards made some big shots.