MARYSVILLE — The Marysville-Pilchuck boys basketball team hung tough against Shorecrest Jan. 10.

The Tomahawks were out-sized against the Scots, but some defensive trickery and precision utilized by M-P kept the Tommies in the game, coach Bary Gould said.

“They were not one-dimensional. They had the bigs inside, and also had guys that could hit three after three,” Gould said. “They are a complete team.”

M-P’s junior Josiah Gould, sophomore Raequan Battle and Freshman Luke Dobler led the way in scoring.“We can count on those guys to consistently give us 60 points a game, and that’s pretty special,” Gould said.

Battle scored a game-high 26 points. It was a “game of runs,” Gould said. “We just said all night, ‘stay the course.’”

From the start, M-P trailed most of the first quarter until the 3’s came. Gould hit a 3-pointer to start M-P’s first-quarter rally, followed by another by Dobler to bring the score to 15-12 going into the second quarter. Junior Kobe Baumann lands a 3-pointer to tie it 15-15 at the start of the second quarter, but M-P couldn’t take a lead.

Shorecrest eventually out-muscled M-P, scoring by way of 3-pointers, and dunks by Scot’s 6-foot-8 junior Philip Pepple.

M-P was down 37-26 by halftime.

M-P’s scoring cooled down in the third quarter, and were behind 54-42 going into the final quarter.

It seemed M-P was going to rollover when it trailed 61-48, but the 3’s heated up again for M-P. Battle started the rally with a 3-pointer, and that’s when M-P briefly turned the corner.

With less-than four minutes left, and the score at 61-54, they eventually came within 65-61 by crucial 3-pointers by Gould.

But with less-than a minute left, M-P missed some shots, where Shorecrest converted. Despite the late-game rally M-P couldn’t catch up to Shorecrest in which it lost 70-67 by end of regulation.

M-P’s record dropped to 6-6.