Kamiak needs OT to break tie with Hawks
Published 11:34 pm Saturday, February 9, 2008
MUKILTEO — The regular season wasn’t long enough for the Kamiak Knights and the Mountlake Terrace Hawks to sort out who deserved the Wesco South’s fourth and final 4A Division 1 playoff spot.
Why should a regulation tiebreaker game be long enough?
Mountlake Terrace and Kamiak went to overtime Saturday night at Kamiak High School, in a battle between the Hawks’ skilled big men and the Knights’ speedy guards that wasn’t settled until Kamiak senior Justin Glenn stole Mountlake Terrace’s inbounds pass with less than a minute remaining in overtime and layed the ball in to complete a wild come-from-behind 52-51 victory.
“I anticipated where the ball was going and used my DB skills to go up and get it,” Glenn said. “(the seniors) didn’t want this to be our last game.”
Kamiak (8-12 overall) plays at Wesco North No. 1 seed Snohomish (17-3 overall) in the opening round of the district playoffs at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. The Panthers defeated Kamiak 41-28 in the season opener for both teams.
“We’ve grown and matured (since then),” Glenn said. “They’re big, tall and strong but I think we can get them with our quickness.”
For the first half of Saturday’s tiebreaker, a Kamiak rematch with Snohomish was anything but inevitable.
Mountlake Terrace dominated the first half from start to finish, holding the Knights to just five points in the first quarter and enjoying a sizable 26-16 advantage at the break.
Mountlake Terrace posts Tarik Kunduklija and Karsten Strieby set the tone right from the opening tip, when Kunduklija punched the ball to Strieby, then put back a Hawks’ miss to make the score 2-0. Strieby scored five of his 16 points in the first quarter on a series of jump shots and aggressive drives.
Kunduklija then took over the second quarter almost single-handedly, scoring all but four of Mountlake Terrace’s 13 points, including three on a highlight putback of a Strieby miss with .7 seconds remaining, which also led to free throw to put the Hawks up 26-16.
Kunduklija finished with a game-high 20 points and nine rebounds.
“This isn’t a hollow feeling,” Mountlake Terrace coach Nalin Sood said. “I feel lucky … Our players left it out on the floor.”
Mountlake Terrace was derailed in the third quarter, when Kamiak’s trio of Glenn, Meka Este-McDonald and Andrew Makori spurred a 15-0 run off a series of 3-pointers and acrobatic layups.
At Kamiak H.S.
M. Terrace131311104—51
Kamiak5112385—52
Mountlake Terrace — Beeninga, Bouche 6, C. Clingan 8, Kunduklija 20, Robinson, Sells 1, Strieby 16. Kamiak — Brown, Dremlyuga 4, Este-McDonald 8, Houghtaling, Ju. Glenn 8, Makori 9, Parcells 8, Ruppel 4, Stormo 11. 3-point goals—Makori 2, Dremlyuga, Bouche. Records—M. Terrace 7-14 overall. Kamiak 8-12.
