MARYSVILLE — The Lady Chargers fell to the Arlington Eagles in a non-league game on Wednesday, Dec. 5, with a final score of 63-26.

The Chargers started out a little uneasy facing the top-ranked Wesco 4A North school, scoring only 13 points in the first half, while the Eagles put up 50 points. Turnovers hurt the Chargers as Arlington proved themselves defensively strong, blocking passes and stealing several times in the first part of the game to trigger fastbreaks leading to several successful shots for the Eagles.

The Chargers were beaten down going into halftime, when the score sat at 50-13. However, when the athletes emerged from the locker room, they seemed more resolved to put up a fight.

They scored another 13 points in the second half, keeping pace with the scoring of the Eagles, who put up nine points in the third quarter and four in the fourth.

The top-scorer for MG was Marina Wika, who scored six points, including two 3-pointers. MG’s point guard Kaitlyn McCormick scored five points, as did teammate Lexy Wilson. Point guard Khalyn King scored three points, as did Rachael Lefstad and Ashlynn Trujillo.

Despite the loss, MG’s head coach Shannon Grandbois said she believes that facing such challenging teams is good for them.

“We are a team that started out at the beginning of last year not knowing how to dribble,” she said. “To go from that to this, where we put up 13 points in the second half, is awesome. Last year we lost to them by 60 or 70 points. They are 4A and are picked No. 1 in their league so playing them makes us better.”

Over the summer, five Chargers trained with Grandbois to prepare for the season.

“Kaitlyn McCormick, Alexis Wilson, Ashlyn Trujillo, Katie Stordahl and Marina Wika were pretty much my core group of girls who worked their butts off over the summer,” she said. “All of our players want to learn, they want to get better and they have hearts of gold.”

The Chargers have already come a long way from where they started and had their first taste of victory on Monday, Dec. 3, against Mariner High School.

“It was a really good game and I’m glad they experienced it. They need to know that it does make a difference and they needed to feel that,” said Grandbois. They beat the Marauders 50-41.

Overall, the team is on a steady streak of improvement.

“I just think that these are the best girls to coach,” said Grandbois. “They all have amazing personalities and loving spirits. I’m lucky to have this opportunity.”

Marysville Getchell faces Stanwood at home on Wednesday, Dec. 12.