MARYSVILLE — While the game provided ample excitement to live up to its billing, Arlington ended up on the short end of a 60-51 contest against rival Marysville-Pilchuck Dec. 18.

“I thought that Marysville played well and I take my hat of to them,” said Arlington head coach Nick Brown.

Marysville came into the game with more collective, focused intensity to earn a 21-18 halftime lead.

“I think Marysville had that (rivalry game) feel but I’m not so sure we did, and I don’t think I did a good enough job breaking that down to them,” Brown said. “We tried hard, but that effort wasn’t together.”

Brown said he was worried about this game after his team saved a subpar performance by erasing a five-point deficit in one minute to win 51-47 against Monroe earlier this week.

“We’re still trying to figure out our roles,” Brown said. “We’re a young team that doesn’t have a lot of varsity experience.”

That inexperience resulted in difficulty scoring against Marysville, particularly in a six-point second quarter.

“Their length really gave us a lot of trouble,” Brown said. “(Dylan) Calahan and (Ryan) Shannon did really well shooting the ball and they just made shots down the stretch and we didn’t.”

Brown said the game was similar to Monroe with the difference being that they couldn’t pull it out in the end.

Leading the Eagles offensively was junior Eric Carlson with 22 points.

The Eagles take almost a week off before resuming play against Meadowdale Dec. 29, and then have to wait almost another week to play. This break Carlson sees as a positive for his team to examine their 1-3 start to conference play.

“Last year we had like four snow days off and I was a little worried about that, but it gave us time to rest and it really helped us,” Brown said. “This is a great group of kids and I wouldn’t change them for anything.”