Marist girls basketball coach Terry Harrison said there’s some coaching pessimism that comes into play when a team has won a lot of close games.

“Sooner or later they even out,” he said.

This season, the Spartans (18-5) are 8-3 in games decided by fewer than 10 points, including 4-0 in games closer than four points. Harrison said he hopes Marist’s game at 7 p.m. today against Sherwood in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs isn’t the one where the odds finally start to even out.

“You’d prefer not to have all of those close games,” he said. “The question is can you continue to win all of them?

“We’ve certainly won our fair share.”

While Harrison’s coaching instincts have led him to view his team’s penchant for come-from-behind wins this season with a wary eye (the Spartans have won eight games where they have trailed by double digits at some point), he said the experiences can help them tonight. They’re trying to win a playoff game for the first time since 2010, when they were in Class 4A.

“We should be able to know that we can take advantage of the pressure situations we’ve been in,” Harrison said. “The kids have executed pretty well down the stretch all year long.

“I think they’ve grown throughout the year and have been able to handle those situations pretty well.”

The Spartans have had to respond to a much different kind of pressure this season as well. Marist has dealt with season-ending injuries to two of its senior captains for a second straight season. On the same day in January, the Spartans lost Martha Gehrig and Maegan Anderson to knee injuries. Both players were coming off junior seasons shortened by similar injuries, and Harrison said his team was a bit down after the most recent setback.

The Spartans hung on for a 40-39 victory over North Eugene five days after Anderson went down in the middle of the third quarter at Willamette. Earlier that day, Gehrig announced she had to get another surgery on her knee.

“You could see we struggled for a half to find the balance of who was going to pick up the responsibility of those other players,” he said.

Gehrig and Anderson remained active from the bench, and on the court Harrison said other girls increased their activity.

“Karson Silver has stepped up,” he said. “Tiffany (Stockton-McLean) has been a little bit more of a floor leader. That’s what we needed.”

Now the Spartans are close to capitalizing on the tough season they’ve played through. They’ve been close the past two seasons, losing by a combined seven points on the road. This year, Marist is at home, and Harrison said the team has put itself in a good position.

“Now we have to go out and just play a great solid basketball game offensively and defensively,” he said, “and take care of Sherwood.”