TACOMA — Thursday night, TreShaun Fletcher put an end to any hopes the Mountlake Terrace boys basketball team had of winning a state championship.
Friday afternoon, the Hawks made sure Brett Bailey didn’t end their hopes of coming home with a trophy.
Bailey scored 28 points — 14 in the first quarter — but couldn’t make his most important shot, a desperation 40-footer as time expired that would have sent the game into overtime, giving the Hawks a 59-56 win in a loser-out game at 3A state tournament.
Bailey hit a three-pointer with 28 seconds remaining to tie the score at 56, but senior guard Marquis Armstead drove for lay up, got fouled and made the free throw with 5.8 seconds to play to give Terrace its final three-point cushion.
Terrace faces Seattle Prep at 9 a.m. today for fourth and sixth places.
The Hawks jumped out to a 6-0 lead early, but Bailey quickly asserted himself. He led the Titans on an 18-2 run, scoring 14 points as the Titans took an 18-11 lead after the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Hawks responded. Terrace coach Nalin Sood switched Blake Fernandez onto Bailey and the senior guard held University’s star to just two points in the second quarter.
“There is no secret formula for stopping a kid, I think you just have to make him work,” Sood said.
The Hawks used a 14-0 run in the second quarter to build a 29-26 halftime lead.
The Titans came back to tie the game once in the second half but never regained the lead.
Bailey had difficulty getting the basketball, but when he did, he managed to score. The University of San Diego recruit made 12 of 20 shots, including three 3-pointers.
“He’s just a great player, you just sort of throw your hands up in the air,” Sood said. “You just try to get the kids to stay positive and stay aggressive. What are you going to do to stop him? There’s a lot more coaches that he has seen this season that are smarter than I am that he’s been scoring a lot of points on and he’s been going against great defenders all year.”
The Hawks had four players score in double figures, including Loren Lacasse, who collected 11 of his 18 points in the second half.
“It’s no secret for us, we are going to try to work inside-outside,” Sood said. “We want to work the ball to Greg and Loren and have them go to work. I think that will free up stuff for our perimeter guys also. We wanted to do that (Thursday) night and it didn’t go as well as we thought it would. When we have been successful this year, we have been an inside-outside team.”
Bowman added 13 points and Fernandez and Armstead each added 12.
But there was no question the biggest bucket belonged to Armstead, who with one determined drive to his left helped assure the Hawks of a state trophy.
“I usually never go to my left, but it happened to be there so I went to my left,” Armstead said. “Honestly, I thought they were going to call a charge, but they ended up calling a block and I finished the shot.”
Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on twitter @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.
At Tacoma Dome
Mountlake Terrace 11 18 14 16 — 59
University 18 8 14 16 — 56
Mountlake Terrace—Jesse Zerom 1, Blake Fernandez 12, Yohans Tewolde 0, Michael Lotz 3, Marquis Armstead 12, Greg Bowman 13, LeTrae Sarden 0, Loren Lacasse 18. University—DaShaun Boswell 13, Garrett Schmerer 0, Michael Isotalo 6, Austin Flynn 0, Andrew Morgan 0, Brett Bailey 28, Caleb Gilbert 0, Joseph Carrieres 0, Khalil Williams 0, Ben Kuiper 9, Conor Linehan 0. 3-point goals — Armstead 1, Bowman 1, Lotz 1, Bailey 3, Isotalo 2, Kuiper 1. Records—Mountlake Terrace 22-4 overall, University 16-9.
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