EVERETT — A third quarter dry spell grounded the Eagles in a 56-39 non-conference loss to Meadowdale Dec. 29.

“Sometimes we’re like squirrels in there among the trees,” said Arlington coach Nick Brown. “We struggle with our height.”

Meadowdale (5-2 overall, 3-2 Wesco South) featured three players who were 6-5 or taller in its starting lineup against Arlington, causing problems for the Eagles offensively as they have just a pair of players taller than 6-2 suited up.

Once play settled down in the second half, Meadowdale was able to move the ball around and capitalize on open shots, hitting five of seven three-point attempts in the third quarter alone to fuel a 26-6 run.

“The difference was they hit their shots,” Brown said. “I’m happy with the effort tonight and we were getting a lot of shots that we wanted, but they weren’t falling.”

Arlington (3-4, 1-3 Wesco North) had to play catchup to start in a physical first half where each team played like it was the state championship game. Bodies flew all over the court and foul totals rose as the Eagles overcame an 8-0 deficit to take a 19-17 lead at halftime. The Eagles seemed to thrive off the discombobulated play that resulted in a number of turnovers for the Mavericks before they could get the ball into the post.

Senior center Evan Robertson scored to open the second half, but the Eagles didn’t score again for nearly six minutes.

“We can’t have these dry spells on offense, and that has been our problem the past couple of weeks,” said Brown, whose team is 1-4 since the start of Wesco Conference play on Dec. 8.

Senior Mavericks guard Sam Warner led the charge in the third quarter with a trio of three-pointers, including a fallaway from NBA range to beat the shot clock. He scored 11 of his game-high 21 points in the third.

From that point, the Mavericks used their height to maintain the lead.

Junior guard Eric Carlson led the Eagles in scoring with 11 points, followed by Zach Cooper’s 10.

“I thought Zach did a good job running things tonight and he and I are starting to get in tune with each other,” Brown said.

Also, Brown commended Robertson, a 6-6 post, for holding his own amidst the trees of Meadowdale, scoring four points.

“I saw Evan start to build some more confidence as he played against those guys,” he said. “It was nice to see him take charge.”