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Marysville boys drop third league game in three seasons

jeff larson, appeal-democrat, marysville, calif.
·4 min read

Jan. 15—The Marysville High boys basketball team is in uncharted territory this season.

A year after winning its first Sac-Joaquin Section championship in 30 years, the Indians dropped their third league game in three seasons after Friday's 78-44 loss at home to Twelve Bridges, out of Lincoln, in a nightcap of a doubleheader with the varsity girls. Marysville's girls squad rebounded from a loss to the California Interscholastic Federation state Division III runner-up with a rout of Twelve Bridges, 50-14.

Both teams continue league Wednesday against rival Lindhurst.

Marysville boys stumble vs. Raging Rhinos

The defending SJS Division IV champs ran into a buzzsaw that was bigger and could shoot better from the perimeter, and Twelve Bridges (14-4, 4-0 PVL) took advantage of each of its strengths to rout Marysville at home, dropping Stan Easter's squad to 10-7 overall and 2-2 in league.

Jacob Gilchrist, a 6-foot-7 senior, dropped in 15 points, including multiple 3-pointers, while senior Kellen Phulps added 12 and James Sweet chipped in 11 points for the Raging Rhinos. For Marysville, 6-5 center Josiah Arrington scored a team-high 12, while Bradford Pietz swished 11 in the loss.

Pietz dropped in two from the perimeter in the opening quarter as Marysville was able to compete, and exchange leads with Twelve Bridges, through eight minutes. In front 16-14 after the first quarter, Twelve Bridges responded with a 19-8 run in the second, including five first-half 3s to jump ahead 35-22 on Marysville at the break.

"They are definitely a good team. Last year when we had our run they played us really well, better than anybody we played all last year, so we were expecting a battle coming into tonight," Marysville assistant coach Danny Lewis said. "As you can see the energy is always high when we play each other, so we expected this. They prepared better than we did and ended up getting us tonight, but we'll see them again."

Twelve Bridges wasn't close to done in the second half. One of the newer schools in the PVL came out in the third quarter with another 3 from the corner and offensive putback to expand its lead to over 20 at the near midpoint of the period. Twelve Bridges hung onto its 20-point lead after three quarters, as Marysville switched to a game plan that centered around trying to find confidence at both ends for its young squad.

"We really are in a rebuild year, we have a lot of athletes up and down the floor, but we are a young squad," Lewis said. "We're starting a sophomore, a junior and we have a lot of young guys coming up on the bench so we are really in a development year, and I think big things are coming for us later this season and next year."

Lewis said it starts with defense.

"We have to be intense defensively. When you have size you have to bother them," Lewis said. "We don't have the size they do on the wings, so we have to make sure we are putting body pressure, hand pressure, getting hands in faces and making them a little bit more uncomfortable. It's hard to make 6-5, 6-6, 6-7 uncomfortable but we have to do that with our hands, activity and feet, and we make sure we are high pressure 24-7."

Since taking over the program in 2012, Easter is not used to losing seasons, especially in league. During Lewis' junior and senior seasons playing for Easter on varsity, Marysville won at least 20 games and got to the SJS playoffs.

With Lewis now on the sidelines down the bench from Easter, Marysville is looking to reshape its roster into championship form again. Perhaps the team's most athletic talent is junior Dennis Syders, who while can be erratic from time-to-time with the ball in his hands, has the capability of magic and can be a firestarter for a rebuilding program.

"We are trying to give him more spacing and that's one of the things we are working towards is one being able to space the floor himself, so develop all three levels of scoring," Lewis said. "But when teams clog the lane on him, the mid- and long-range shot, he is not as consistent as we would like, but he is developing. He is in the gym everyday, so we are working with him. Then we are working with our guys to give him more space: (Anthony) Walker, Arrington and some of our wings we are trying to develop them into better shooters so we can give him more space."

Marysville girls beat Twelve Bridges

Marysville's Kaliyah Henry dropped in five 3s and a team-high 15 points, while junior Demi Boykin added 14 to help the Indians batter Twelve Bridges, 50-14 Friday night.

Marysville was up 24-2 at halftime and 38-7 after three quarters. The Indians improved to 11-4 overall and 3-1 in league — a game back of first place in league.