EVERETT — As he had all game, Bubba Palacol dissected the Spokane Colleges defenders, utilizing strong footwork to get to the basket and score off the glass to give Everett Community College men’s basketball a 92-91 lead with 48 seconds left in overtime at the Walt Price Student Fitness Center on Saturday.

Reaching 34 points with the layup, Palacol put EvCC in prime position to close out its non-conference schedule with a win against a Spokane team it had lost to twice earlier this season. Spokane’s Javonte Boles missed a layup on the ensuing possession, and Everett’s Darious Turner grabbed the rebound with 35 seconds left. With a five-second difference between the shot clock and game clock, Everett could not simply run time off.

Once again, Palacol had the ball in his hands, letting as much time pass as possible before dribbling in and kicking out to Anthony Najera, who passed it Noah Parker in the corner. With the shot clock running out, Parker had to force up a 3-point attempt. The rushed shot fell back to Spokane, and the visitors quickly worked the ball back up to Boles on the other side of the court.

With the game in his hands, Boles wouldn’t miss again. The 6-foot-7 forward scored under the basket with 0.6 seconds left, and while Everett managed to get the ball down to Palacol after a timeout for a potential deep 3, there simply wasn’t enough time. The Sasquatch (12-3) would walk away with a 93-92 overtime win against the Trojans (7-8) to sweep the season series.

“Two good teams just playing their hearts out there, kind of get ourselves ready for the league (schedule),” Spokane coach Jeremy Groth said. “It was back-and-forth. Kind of one of those things where whoever had the ball last might get to win this game, and that’s kind of what it came down to at the end there.”

Bolles, who hit the game-winning shot, led the Sasquatch with 25 points and 11 rebounds, while Grant Olsen (19 points), Jack Del Mese (17 points) and Jasahn Redmond (13 points) all reached double-figures in the win.

Palacol, the former Marysville Getchell star, led Everett with a game-high 34 points and six assists, while Parker scored 25 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Turner (13 points, 11 rebounds) pitched in with a double-double, and Najera scored 11 points off the bench.

The loss for EvCC wraps up the non-conference schedule, in which it finished 7-8. However, after starting the season 0-5 against a tough slate of ranked opponents, the Trojans are 7-3 in their last 10 games. After losing by 14 and 19 points in their last two matchups against Spokane on Nov. 29 and Dec. 7, respectively, EvCC closed the gap in Saturday’s contest.

“Now, I feel like we’ve gotten used to playing with each other,” said Parker, an Everett High School graduate who is among the eight true freshmen on the active roster. “We can play with anybody. … We can hoop, we got a lot of good players on our team, and it’s just any given day, anyone can score double-digits. We’re going to go out, we’re going to hustle, we’re going to get rebounds. It’s just playing together.”

Everett freshman Bubba Palacol whips the ball across the court during the Trojans’ 93-92 overtime loss to the Sasquatch at Walt Price Student Fitness Center on Jan. 3, 2026. (Daniel Acosta / Everett CC)

Palacol opened the game with a 3-pointer as the Trojans jumped out to an early 8-3 lead, but the Sasquatch started to knock down their shots and took the lead on an 9-0 run that spanned 5:33 until Bryson Bell knocked down a 3 to cut it to 12-11 with 12:55 left in the first half. However, Spokane went on another run to jump ahead 22-13 by the midway point of the first half, which led Everett coach Daniel Thompson to call a timeout. He could sense his team’s body language start to sink, and he stepped in to make sure things didn’t get out of hand.

“We just talked about, ‘Hey, just lock back in. Focus,’” Thompson said. “‘(If you) make a mistake, just move on to the next play and just try to get it back on defense rather than sit there and just think about the mistake you made, and let it compound over and over and over.’”

Palacol, who only had three points through 10 minutes, teamed up with Parker to slowly reel Spokane back in. Palacol drew a foul under the basket after the timeout and knocked down both free throws, then dribbled around a couple defenders to score on a reverse layup a couple possessions later.

Palacol scored again, picking up a loose ball and driving for a layup before Parker scored the next four points for Everett on a putback layup and an aggressive drive to the rim. Palacol cut the deficit to 32-28 with 6:04 left before the break by converting an ‘And-1’ under the basket and hitting the free throw.

The two teams traded shots until Parker tied it 36-36 on a layup with 1:57 left in the half, and Palacol knocked down a 3-pointer on the next possession to put Everett back in the lead with 1:25 left.

“I caught it at the elbow and I turned around and it was just me and a different guy (defending me),” Palacol said. “I know I can take him.”

The Trojans entered halftime with a 41-38 lead, and built it up to 53-45 with 16:47 left in regulation thanks in part to a couple 3-pointers and a putback dunk from Turner, but the Sasquatch worked it back into a tie game with a series of layups and free throws to make it 61-61 with 12:06 to go.

The lead never exceeded three points for either side for the rest of the game. Anytime one side hit a big shot, the other would respond. After Spokane’s Eloy Chaparro knocked down a 3 to take a 74-71 lead with 6:42 to go, Parker tied it up again with a corner 3 just 12 seconds later. Palacol scored his 30th point of the game on a driving layup to extend Everett’s lead to 80-77 with 4:14 to go, but Carson Way nailed a 3 to tie it 80-80 with 3:44 remaining.

Najera scored a layup with 3:19 left to make it 82-80, and those were the final points either side would score in regulation before Olsen hit a tying layup with 4.3 seconds left. In between, each side traded turnovers and missed shots as Everett couldn’t manage to pull away before the Sasquatch forced overtime, and ultimately won the game.

“Open 3’s, we had a few guys miss them, but those shots usually go in,” Palacol said. “It’s overtime, we played 45 minutes, I get it. They’re tired. They’re not used to shooting game-time shots like that.”

While the final result left the Trojans stinging, the team feels like it’s in a good place. Their NWAC North slate kicks off on Jan. 7 against Whatcom.

“I think we got a ton of momentum,” Thompson said. “We’ve learned a lot. The guys’ chemistry is a lot better now. I think we’ve figured out who’s good in what spots, and where guys flourish and kind of where their weaknesses are, so we just play to their strengths and I think we’re ready to go. I’m excited for Wednesday.”

Gallery

Everett freshman Bubba Palacol whips the ball across the court during the Trojans’ 93-92 overtime loss to the Sasquatch at Walt Price Student Fitness Center on Jan. 3, 2026. (Daniel Acosta / Everett CC)