MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — Arlington girls basketball has been on top of their game for the whole season, but in the 4A District 1 Championship game against Lynnwood on Saturday, Feb. 16, the Lady Eagles were outplayed by the Royals in the end.
“I think we played three really good quarters of basketball, but in the fourth quarter we stopped scoring and they didn’t,” said Arlington head coach Joe Marsh.
The first three quarters of the game were back and forth, with each school taking the lead at least half a dozen times. In the first quarter, Arlington scored 17 points to Lynnwood’s 15 points but in the second quarter Lynnwood caught up by scoring 13 points to Arlington’s 10 and going into halftime with a 28-27 lead.
It was in the second half that the Royals really began to outscore the Eagles. In the third quarter they scored 17 points to the Eagles’ 12 points and in the fourth quarter outscored them by six, taking the district title with a 61-49 final score.
“They were able to really stretch out that lead and we couldn’t come back from it,” said Marsh. “They were making all their free throws throughout and we weren’t, so that helped them in the end.”
The usual suspects led the game for Arlington.
“Jessica Ludwig played phenomenally for us. Winter Brown really did a great job of making those big shots,” said Marsh. “Krista Showalter had another great game as did Lindsay Brown.”
Lindsay Brown scored 11 points including one 3-pointer, while Winter Brown scored nine points including three 3-pointers. Ludwig scored nine points, including two 3-pointers and Showalter scored nine points including two 3-pointers. Taylor Graham scored six points with two 3-pointers, and Jayla Russ scored five points including one 3-pointer.
The Lady Eagles are still headed to the 4A Regional Tournament at Puyallup High School at 6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 22. It’s their first time to regionals since 2001.
“At this point in this season it’s not good to overwork the athletes, so we won’t be putting them through any big workouts this week,” said Marsh. “We are just going to watch the teams, see who we are playing and focus on playing really good basketball. It’s been a goal for us this whole season. We have a veteran team with six seniors and I think they are excited. We just need to win this next game and we’ll make it to state.”
