‘We all want to be winners’: Seattle prospects Mason Williams, Emmett Marquardt continue to develop for Eastern Washington

Emmett Marquardt has made his share of jokes in the past two years about the 2023 State 3A boys basketball championship game.

But it’s reached the point, he said, that he feels badly when it comes up.

That’s largely because Mason Williams, his current roommate – and teammate on the EWU men’s basketball team – was on the O’Dea High School team that Marquardt’s Garfield High School team defeated 69-50 that March at the Tacoma Dome.

“Thinking about it now, I try to forget it,” Williams said on Wednesday. “It was fun. I was glad I got to play with my brothers.”

Williams, already committed to EWU by that point, scored 14 points in that game; Marquardt scored five. The two didn’t know each other well, as Marquardt didn’t commit to Eastern Washington until a couple of weeks after that game.

“When you’re in Seattle, all you’re talking about is who won state. You grow up hearing about that,” Marquardt said. “Being at Garfield, it’s what you work for and what you wish for.”

Marquardt may have that title, but two years later, he and Williams are brothers in basketball, both regular starters for the Eagles after competing against each other for a coveted league and state championship.

While this year’s Eagles are unlikely to repeat as Big Sky regular-season champions – Eastern (7-16, 3-7 Big Sky) is ninth in the 10-team conference’s standings heading into Thursday’s home game against last-place Sacramento State (6-16, 2-7) – Williams and Marquardt haven’t lowered their expectations.

“We all want to be winners,” Williams said. “(This year) hasn’t been easy, and there have been hard times. Our record shows we haven’t been doing so great, but we’re all learning throughout the process.”

On a given night, Eastern Washington has struggled with any number of issues, such as poor shooting, poor defense, insufficient rebounding or too many turnovers. Eastern ranks in the bottom half of the conference in all of those categories.

But compared to last season, this year’s Eagles are lagging behind in two key metrics: shooting and rebounding. Last year’s team led the Big Sky in shooting percentage (50.1) and had the second-best rebounding margin (plus-2.3 per game). This year’s team has made 45.4% of its shots and the rebounding average is negative-2.3.

In his sophomore season, the guard Williams has stepped into a key scoring role. After a career-best 35-point night last week, he ranks second on the team in scoring (13.9 points per game) behind senior transfer Andrew Cook (15.3).

“When he is vocal, it’s very important,” Marquardt said of Williams also taking on a leadership role. “We can feel it at practice. When a guy like Mason has less energy, the energy shifts.”

Marquardt, a redshirt freshman forward, is the only Eagles player to start all 23 games and is averaging nine points and five rebounds.

“He fills up the stat sheet with other things,” Williams said of Marquardt. “He’s not even a true 5, but he’s in there doing the dirty work. And he doesn’t lack confidence. … He gets his work done.”

Even through a series of close losses – Eastern’s largest in-conference defeat came by 11 points – Williams and Marquardt said they have immense trust in Dan Monson, whose first year as EWU’s head coach is his 28th year as a head coach overall.

“I trust him completely,” Marquardt said, “and I think it’s because he’s been honest since Day 1.”

Marquardt means that in the most literal way: When Monson was first hired and he sat down with the six remaining players, Marquardt said Monson told him he would honor the promise the previous staff made to award Marquardt a scholarship after his redshirt season.

That started a pattern Marquardt said Monson hasn’t broken.

“Everything he’s said has turned out the way he’s said it,” Marquardt said. “If he said we need to rebound to win this game, if we rebound we win. If we don’t, we’re not going to win.”

The team’s 72-49 victory Saturday at Weber State was a marker for that as well. Eastern grabbed 44 rebounds, its most in a conference game, made a season-high 22 of 24 free-throw attempts and allowed just 15 made baskets, a season low.

Something to build on? Maybe.

“It was important,” Williams said of the victory, “but I think our mindset still hasn’t changed. We won one game, but I think if we can once again go out and do what coach Monson says, and be happy for each other, that’s going to take us where we need to go.”

For Williams, this has been a season of learning how to take care of his body as he deals with injuries that have kept him out of five games this season.

“I can’t wait until it feels regular again,” Williams said. “I’ve never really been through injuries; I am just grateful I am here to play basketball with my teammates.”

Marquardt said his challenges have mostly been those of other first-year players – and on Eastern’s roster, there are many players in a similarly youthful spot.

One aspect he’s seen improvement is in avoiding foul trouble. Through the season’s first 15 games, Marquardt fouled out twice and got called for four fouls in four more games. But in the nine since, he’s been called for four fouls just once.

It’s all part of the process, he said.

“As a center, it’s a more physical game. You have to use your hits and blows strategically,” Marquardt said. “Now having played three-quarters of the season, I’m starting to see what works and what doesn’t. As you play, you learn.”