SACRAMENTO, CA (MPG) - The Marysville Indians glistened in the bright lights of the Golden 1 Center in their 77-62 win over the Lathrop Spartans on Thursday, December 22.

The boys and girls teams for Marysville and Lathrop both played one another at the home of the Sacramento Kings and the contests were exciting for the outstanding support that showed up inside of the arena.

Marysville head coach Stand Easter expressed to the Dispatch that the potential distraction of playing inside a National Basketball Association arena was obvious, so he stressed it the previous week to his team that they can be nervous and there is no avoiding it.

“Have your moment and let’s get past it because it’s just basketball at the end of the day on a bigger court,” Easter said.

Easter added he couldn’t tell his team was nervous from the opening tip because they got off to a great start.

The Indians opened the game with early control up 7-2 in the early going, but junior forward Josiah Arrington picked up two fouls in the first 2 minutes and 39 seconds of play, which caused one of the primary big men of the team to sit for a majority of the first half.

Arrington did get back into the game in the second quarter and quickly picked up his third foul of the half and sat the remainder of the half.

Easter exclaimed to the Dispatch that this was Arrington’s best game throughout the season so far because he was so effective when he was in and added that it was challenging to keep Arrington on the floor because of the foul trouble.

“He’s (Arrington) truly our only big guy, he rebounds really well and has soft hands to be able to finish around the rim,” Easter told the Dispatch.

Arrington had seven points, eight team-high rebounds and two assists in the game.

Marysville took a 42-36 lead at the half and were led by senior guard Amrin Mann with 19 of his game-high 29 points.

Mann was effective on flushing six three-pointers from the outside with his smooth shooting stroke.

Mann mentioned to the Dispatch that his favorite part of the experience at the Golden 1 Center was the locker room because it looked exactly how it’s portrayed on the NBA 2K video game.

Mann expressed his team was effective with good ball movement, making shots and teamwork even though the Indians are missing a couple players on their roster currently.

Mann added that he is ecstatic that he is finally able to play on the same team as his best friend, Indians senior guard Josh Brown Jr.

Brown added 10 points, four rebounds and six assists against Lathrop.

Brown added to the comment of great ball movement of Mann by exclaiming that everyone on the Marysville roster can shoot, so getting his teammates involved is easy.

The Indians contained the Spartans’ best player in forward Ahmad Jacquet to 18 points total and allowed Jacquet only eight in the second half.

Marysville extended their lead 60-48 at the end of the third and were able to extend it a little more in the final minutes of the game to win their ninth contest of the season.

The Indians conclude their challenging preseason schedule this week as they compete in the second annual Coach Corn Classic at Yuba College that is held Wednesday to Friday with stellar competition that includes Elk Grove, Oakmont and El Camino.

Brown expressed to the Dispatch that the goal of the team was to win a section title. If Marysville were to win a section title, they will see the Golden 1 Center again as that is where the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section finals will be played.