ARLINGTON — Lady Eagles basketball looked to get back to business after a week of inclement weather put 10 days between their Jan. 11 win over Edmonds-Woodway and their home game against Cascade on Jan. 21.
Wintry conditions and postponements allowed only three practices between the games, but Arlington’s hustle and team physicality helped to shake off the rust and claw the Bruins for a 61-23 win.
“We didn’t shoot the ball well,” Arlington head coach Joe Marsh said. “We struggled in the first half and came out sloppy, but we had way better execution in the second half because we were more into the game.”
Arlington looked for seniors Lindsay Brown and Kaiti Ferro immediately to establish their physical low-post attack that had elevated them to a 6-3 4A North conference record and a 10-4 overall record coming into the night. Brown and Ferro anchored the Eagles at the other end of the court, cutting off baseline penetration in the Eagles’ 2-3 zone.
Hustle created an early lead as junior guard Krista Showalter scored Arlington’s first two baskets of the game off the dribble and Brown showed her versatility by hitting a three-pointer. Senior guard Jensen Evans took a hustle layup to the basket from midcourt to take a 9-1 lead and force a Cascade timeout.
Brown found herself with the ball at the top of the arc once more but instead found Ferro for a score beneath the basket before hitting another three just moments later. Arlington led 16-6 after a quarter.
The Eagles’ half-court press succeeded as senior guard Megan Abdo turned a midcourt steal into a layup. Brown and senior guard Lauren Grogan notched back-to-back steals, from the latter of which Abdo drew a foul. Cascade took another timeout, down 22-7 with 5:28 left in the half.
Arlington’s three-pointers stopped falling in the second quarter, but the Eagles’ energy kept the offense running. Ferro tormented the Bruin defense with an offensive rebound and a put-back and Evans turned an Eagle fast break into a layup from the left. Abdo snagged another midcourt steal and took it in for a basket and a foul.
The Eagles capped the first half by forcing a Cascade shot clock violation with under a minute and a half remaining. Showalter rewarded her team’s efforts with a power layup through the middle of the key with 25 seconds left and Arlington led 22-9 at halftime.
Ferro continued Cascade’s misery by blocking shots in the paint and muscling up for an Abdo-assisted lay-in on the offensive side. Brown hit her third three-pointer of the night and Showalter broke the defense once again with a swooping layup from the baseline.
“Lindsay’s getting confidence and we’ve been wanting her to step out for shots for a while,” said Marsh of Brown’s versatility.
Junior guard Winter Brown dove for rebounds and loose balls to control the pace as she began to direct the offense and fellow junior guard Taylor Graham split two defenders in the middle of the key for a layup and returned soon after to lead an Arlington transition charge for a layup. The Eagles led 52-14 at the end of three quarters.
Senior forward Stefanie Schmuck took over the paint in the fourth quarter and Arlington bled the clock to secure their eleventh overall win with a 61-23 score.
Arlington looks to challenge for the top seed in the 4A North as they face five straight North opponents, a stretch that includes conference leader Lake Stevens and second-place Stanwood, to finish the regular season.
