The Mount Baker boys basketball team had two big advantages against Sehome, and the Mounties used their size and experience to defeat the visiting Mariners, 71-53, on Tuesday, Dec. 17.
“Wins are hard to come by in this league,” said Mount Baker coach Tony Clark, whose veteran squad earned its first Northwest Conference victory. “To get them (the Mariners) two years in a row … it’s a great springboard for us. It will give us confidence.”
The win improved the Mounties’ overall record to 4-2 and their NWC mark to 1-2. For Sehome, the loss was its first in three league games and left the Mariners with a 3-3 overall record.
“They’re pretty good,” Sehome coach Brad Jackson said of the Mounties. “We have a small margin of error. We just couldn’t quite get over the hump.”
The reason the Mariners’ margin of error is small is because the team is small, in large part because their two biggest returning inside players — Cole Turrell and Carter Duckworth — are out with injuries. That also leaves them with only two players who had previous varsity playing time.
“Except for Xavier (Kelley) and Bane (Mitchell), I’m taller than the rest of the guys,” said Jackson, who might even have shrunk a little since his 6-1 playing days at Washington State. “But I told them I won’t get upset for losing. It’s all about attitude and effort. And the kids battled.”
The Mariners did, never letting the game get out of hand until the Mounties made eight of 10 free throws in the waning minutes when Sehome was forced to foul.
But give Mount Baker credit for matching Sehome’s effort. The Mounties used their height to dominate the boards — pulling down 38 rebounds, 15 on the offensive end — and their experience to stymie ever Sehome rally.
“I felt like we controlled the game and did what we wanted to do,” said Clark, whose team equaled its win total for all of last season. “It was 100 percent our experience.”
Leading the way was the junior backcourt of Jordan Bailey and Carter Hill. They ran the efficient offense that produced 18 assists and saw six Mounties score eight or more points, only had eight turnovers against Sehome’s pressure, and the two played great defense on Sehome outstanding guards.
The biggest beneficiary — literally — of Mount Baker’s efficient play was sophomore Kell Reardon. Either posting up, running the break, or fighting for rebounds, the 6-foot-5 center dominated inside, scoring a game-high 24 points, pulling down 11 rebounds, blocking 3 shots, and even dishing out 3 assists.
After Mount Baker took a double-digit lead in the second period, the Mariners finally cut the margin to 10 midway through the third period. But Reardon scored inside, turned a putback into a three-point play, and then scored on a layup. Sehome would never get the lead to single digits after that.
“We played awesome as a team,” said Reardon. “We kept the pedal down. We had mismatches (inside) now and then. But I couldn’t have done it without the guards getting me the ball.”
Actually, thanks to the guards’ play, almost every Mountie got the ball, and the team’s balanced scoring was a coach’s dream. Hill had 11 points in addition to 5 assists and 4 rebounds; senior Luke Smith had 10 points and 7 rebounds; Bailey and senior Darius Gilstrap had 9 points each; and junior Payton Abitia was a spark off the bench with 8 points, including two 3-pointers.
“They’re the engine that drives us,” said Clark of Bailey and Hill.
Sehome’s own outstanding backcourt — varsity veterans junior Nolan Wright and sophomore Quincy Tanovan — held its own despite being the center of Mount Baker’s defensive attention.
Wright finished with 20 points and 6 assists with 14 points and both his 3-pointers coming in the second half as the Mariners tried to come back. Tanovan had 11 points and a pair of 3s and hit three of four free throws, the only ones the Mariners’ would have in the game.
Kelley, a 6-2 junior, managed 7 points and 11 rebounds against the taller Mounties, but no other Mariner had more than five points.
“We hustled a bunch, but we made a lot of little mistakes,” said Wright. “We’ve been doing pretty well against big guys, but they got the better of us tonight. There’s high chemistry on this team. We just have to fix the little things.”
Both teams will be tested in their next games. Sehome hosts undefeated Lynden Christian on Thursday, and Mount Baker travels to Burlington-Edison on Friday.
Mount Baker 71, Sehome 53
Sehome 8 18 16 11—53
Mount Baker 15 22 17 17—71
Sehome: Wright 20, Jackson 5, Tanovan 11, McAtee 2, Evans 4, Kelley 7, Mitchell 4.
Mount Baker: L. Smith 10, Gilstrap 9, Bailey 9, Lukes, Abitia 8, Hill 11, Armbright, Reardon 24.
