Terrace falls to Hazen

Published 6:22 pm Friday, February 25, 2011

MARYSVILLE — The magical run of the Mountlake Terrace boys basketball team was derailed by one quarter of sloppy basketball Friday night.

In the long run, the Hawks hope they’ll remember the 2010-2011 season for their remarkable midseason turnaround; for their ability to overcome

a seven-game losing streak and be one of the last 32 teams in the state left standing.

For now, however, the Hawks are left to deal with a stunning 67-60 overtime loss to Hazen in the state regional playoffs. Mountlake Terrace led by as many as 12 points in the fourth quarter, but the Highlanders made the game close with a 9-0 run midway through the quarter, then tied the game with a steal and layin with only six seconds left in regulation.

“Bitter pill,” said Mountlake Terrace coach Nalin Soon. “Bitter, bitter pill. It’s as bad a taste in your mouth as you can get from losing a basketball game.”

“We can’t let it overshadow the whole body of work, and the whole body of work is that we lost seven games in a row, we were second to last in the league, and this senior class fought like crazy to make something out of this and we almost made it to the final 12. … That leaves a little bit of a sick feeling in your stomach, but I told the kids that in about two weeks, they’ll be able to look at the whole body of work and feel good about things.”

The Hawks (13-12) entered the fourth quarter up nine points, and seemed well on their way to victory after Marcus Armstead opened the quarter with a 3-pointer to give Terrace its biggest lead of the game. Things went bad in a hurry for the Hawks, however, as they committed seven fourth-quarter turnovers, missed three of six free throws, including the front end of two one-and-ones, and allowed too many easy baskets as Hazen rallied.

“You can look at the turnovers, you can look at the defensive breakdowns, and we just didn’t make free throws, especially towards the end of the game there,” Sood said. “We just didn’t do enough to win that game. We kept giving them opportunities and they took advantage at the end of the game.

“You’d almost rather get beat by 15 or 20. We should have won that basketball game. We should have taken care of the basketball and we should have had a little tougher defense at the end of the game not to let them get in the game like they did. And you’ve got to hand it to them. They didn’t quit, and they made the plays at the end when we didn’t. You’ve got to make the plays for 32 minutes, not for 31 minutes and change.”

In overtime, Mountlake Terrace was unable to recover from the fourth-quarter punch to the gut. Michael Dampier hit a three for Hazen to open the extra period and the Highlanders led the rest of the way, leading by as many as eight in the final minutes.

“You could see it in our guys’ faces,” Sood said. “But I told the guys going into overtime, ‘We didn’t lose the game there, we just didn’t win it.’ I thought we were a better team for 32, why not for 37? But they rode the momentum and we sort of flattened out.”

That flattening out was disappointing for a team used to digging itself out of unenviable positions. The Hawks were 4-8 at one point this season, and after losing in the district tournament, they had to win two elimination games to get this far.

“I thought we were more mature than that,” said senior guard Martinze Johnson. “I thought we could handle that.”

Like his coach, however, Johnson was proud of his team despite a bitter defeat.

“I’m pretty proud of this team,” Johnson said. “We’ve come a long ways. It just hurts to lose like this. It’s been a fun run. This team, the coaches, the players, we’ve become a family. Words can’t explain it really. It hurts to see this end.”

Marcus Armstead led Mountlake Terrace with 12 points, Zach Karels added 11 and Julian Snow finished with a team-high nine rebounds. Hazen center Brandt Graybeal led all scorers with 22 points and had 14 rebounds. Graybeal’s big night included the game-tying basket in the finals seconds of regulation. The Hawks had the ball with the lead as time wound down, but Hazen’s DeCorrius Sampson was able to knock the ball loose, and Graybeal picked it up and went to the rim for the tying score.

“It’s a little bit of shock right now,” said Snood. “I’m not looking forward to waking up tomorrow and realizing that this isn’t a bad dream, this is reality. And the reality is we don’t get to practice on Monday.”

Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com.

At Marysville-Pilchuck H.S.
Hazen 9 12 9 21 16 — 67
Mountlake Terrace 16 12 11 12 9 — 60
Hazen—Johnson 11, Magar 5, Gillis, Sampson 17, Dampier 7, Pawliuk, Kasa 5, Grabeal 22, Moorhead. Mountlake Terrace—Johnson 4, Poweell 8, Fernandez 6, Karels 11, Armstead 12, Haldane 3, Lambert 4, Snow 6, Bowman, Swanstrom 6. 3-point goals—Magar 1, Dampier 1, Powell 1, Karels 1, Armstead 2, Haldane 1. Records—Hazen 21-6, Mountlake Terrace 13-12.