MARYSVILLE — The Lady Tomahawks dominated the court on Tuesday, Dec. 18, when they defeated the Oak Harbor Wildcats 62-48.
It started out as a messy game in the first half — the Tommies scored 20 points in the first quarter and as the Wildcats scrambled to keep pace with Marysville’s offensive strength, the second quarter was filled with half-a-dozen turnovers on both teams. Oak Harbor scored another 16 points before halftime, bringing the score to 32-26 to the Tomahawks.
Top scorers for Marysville include 5-foot-11 junior guard Charlee Pilon, who scored a total of 20 points in the game and 6-foot-tall junior forward Jenika Anglim, who scored 19 points by the end of the game. Junior forward Jordan Bengen scored 13 points, while 5-foot-7 guard Kayla Tocco scored five points, including one 3-pointer. Pilon and Anglim scored two 3-pointers each.
“We had Charlee Pilon, Jenika Anglim and Jordan Bengen all as top scorers,” said head coach Julie Martin. The Tomahawks won three games so far this season, as of press time, and Martin explains that the improvement is all about practice.
“A lot of the reason is just them playing together more,” said Martin. “My whole team is fairly new. We have two full-time returners — Jenika only played four games last season, because she had knee surgery — and we have a few freshmen and a sophomore. They have all had a little more time working together and learning how to play together.”
One of the team’s weaknesses was its defense.
“Our defense has a lot of work to do,” said Martin. “We need to work a little bit better off-ball and learn where we need to be on the court. We let up a little on the off-ball and we need to be just as intense as we are on-ball.”
The turnover issue during the game against the Wildcats wasn’t left unaddressed.
“Sometimes we get a little off with our passes. We’ll get stuck in a rushed mode of things, so today we worked on having really crisp passes and making sure we actually have good passes rather than just throwing it up,” said Martin.
The team still had a slight advantage over Oak Harbor going into the game.
“Our height is a huge advantage for us,” said Martin. “All of our starters are 5-foot-11 and up.”
The team faced Everett in an in-league contest on Thursday, Dec. 20, the results of which weren’t known as of press time.
“Everett is ranked higher than us in our league and I just hope that we can step up and play better defense for that game.”
The Tommies and their fans have another event to look forward to over the holiday break — an alumni game.
“We will have a group of alumni from the last 20 years get together and play against my team,” said Martin. “It should be really interesting.”
The alumni game is set for Saturday, Dec. 29, at 7:15 p.m. and it’s free if you bring in canned food donations.
“We figured since it was after the holidays the food bank would be pretty bare,” said Martin. “So people can come out and enjoy a game and bring in canned food. It’s a win for everybody.”
