EVERETT — First-year Mariner boys basketball coach Eric Ensign wants his team to get used to winning games.
If the Marauders keep playing the way they have through four games, Ensign might get his wish sooner than later.
Behind a 22-point fourth quarter, the Marauders improved to 3-1 this season with a 59-45 win over Lake Stevens in what was the first league game of the season for both teams.
“I’ve told these guys all along, since they offered me the job here, that they’re a talented group. They just didn’t have a lot of experience winning and they needed to learn to win,” Ensign said. “Every time we get a game like this, it’s just another lesson learned and it reinforces that we are a good team and they are a good group of players that can compete with anybody. They’re starting to believe it.”
With his Marauders holding a 43-40 lead with just over four minutes to play in the fourth quarter, Ensign called a timeout to talk to his team. Mariner responded with a 12-0 run to put the game away.
“We went to more of a matchup zone,” Ensign said. “We really concentrated on their big guy that was down inside moving around and getting position in there. We focused in on him and I think that was the difference-maker.”
Junior guard Kevin Villalobos made several key free throws in the fourth quarter and also scored four points during Mariner’s 12-0 run. Villalobos finished with 23 points to lead all scorers.
“He’s definitely the guy we go to when we need a basket,” Ensign said. “He’s a guy that really wants to take the shot when we need one. We’re always encouraging, ‘Whenever you get a shot, go for it.’ In the past I’ve tended to be a little bit more patient offensively, but he’s a guy that’s made me kind of question that philosophy from time to time because he hits big shots.”
The Marauders also got a big night from junior post DeRhaun Mallett, who finished with 12 points. Mallett did an effective job holding Lake Stevens’ talented pair of posts, sophomore Trey Pavitt and junior Jacob Eason, to a combined 19 points.
“Going into to tonight, we knew that they were probably going to be playing a lot of zone, so I said to DeRhaun, ‘You’re going to do most of your damage tonight on the offensive glass.’ And I said specifically, ‘You need to go in and box the big kid (Eason) out.’ That was his main responsibility, just to keep him off the glass.”
Neither team led by more than two points in a very competitive first quarter. The Vikings were the first team to seize momentum early in the second quarter. The Vikings used an 8-0 run to take a 24-16 advantage, but the Marauders fought back to cut the deficit to five at halftime.
In the third quarter, Mariner picked up its defensive effort, holding the Vikings to six points.
“This is a team that tends to play better offensively when they’re playing better defensively,” Ensign said. “Once we started to put some stops together, I think that really helped us out on the offensive end.”
Mariner claimed the lead in the final moments of the third quarter after not leading for nearly two full quarters, and they never trailed again. The Vikings struggled with foul trouble in the second half and didn’t take care of the basketball during Mariner’s decisive 12-0 run.
“Our ball security was poor in the last four minutes and, frankly, I think we just lost our composure,” Lake Stevens head coach Mark Hein said. “We probably had six or seven turnovers in that last five minutes of the game.”
Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on Twitter at @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.
At Mariner H.S.
Lake Stevens161469—45
Mariner1691222—59
Lake Stevens—Josh Rasmussen 0, Garrett Glick 2, Justin Brown 3, Riley Krenz 0, Dante Lewis 7, Neil Blaine 10, Jacob Eason 10, Wyatt Wahlberg 4, Trey Pavitt 9, Conor Bardue 0. Mariner—Ryan Mendoza 6, Greg Whitaker 2, Kevin Villalobos 23, Ravinder Athwal 2, Tim Angelos 0, Jeremiah Bell 0, Jalen Hayes 5, Erwin Dzeko 9, DeRhaun Mallett 12. 3-point goals—Lewis 1, Blaine 2, Mendoza 1, Villalobos 1, Hayes 1. Records—Lake Stevens 0-1 league, 1-4 overall. Mariner 1-0, 3-1.
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