MARYSVILLE — The same surprised, frustrated look was on every one of the lady Tomahawks’ face.
Monroe scored 16 consecutive points in under three minutes to start a game that could have given a Marysville-Pilchuck the Wesco North girls hoops title.
“They were all shocked,” said M-P coach Julie Martin of her girls’ state of mind after calling a time out with the score 14-0. “They were confident coming into the game, but not cocky — but none of us expected that.”
It took the Tomahawks nearly three quarters to recover from their start Feb. 4, but ended up losing 61-49.
Monroe built such a lead based on a combination of forcing five M-P turnovers, making six out of its first eight shots, which included a pair of three-pointers, and scoring three buckets while being fouled.
“We weren’t doing a lot of the things we’re capable of,” Martin said. “Little errors that we don’t usually make cost us tonight.”
On the other end, M-P started the long night not being able to score, despite getting three or even four chances per possession.
The loss dropped the Tomahawks’ record to 12-3 in Wesco North play, technically a half game ahead of Monroe at 11-3, but M-P lost both meetings with the Bearcats this season.
“It’s tough, we really wanted this,” Martin said.
But as she stressed to her team in the locker room after the game, while they didn’t win the conference that night, it was still possible to do so as both teams still had to play Oak Harbor before league play ended Feb. 10.
It may have taken M-P a while to recover from such a large deficit, but behind offensive rebounding by sophomore Emily Enberg and the leadership of junior Andi Adams, the girls fought to make the score 55-47 with 1:15 remaining.
“That’s the one great things about this team, they were diving on the floor for loose balls to get back into the game and they almost did,” Martin said.
Doing most of the damage for Monroe was Suzanna Ohlsen, who scored 26 points, while Alyssa Brazel scored nine of her 14 during that first quarter run.
The Tomahawks were led by Enberg’s 15 points and Dacia Heckendorf added 12.
