Snohomish upsets Mountlake Terrace for first playoff win in 11 years
Published 11:45 pm Thursday, February 13, 2025
MOUNTLAKE TERRACE – When Jeff Larson entered the Snohomish boys basketball locker room, he was greeted with a roaring cheer. After the coach returned to the hall a few minutes later, it looked like he just stepped off Splash Mountain, with clothes drenched and a big smile on his face.
However, the only rollercoaster ride was Thursday’s game, where senior Bryson Wheat (25 points) and the No. 10-seed Panthers (8-14) knocked off the seventh-seeded Mountlake Terrace Hawks (11-11) 49-43 in the opening round of the District 1 3A Boys Basketball Tournament.
It marked Snohomish’s first playoff win in almost 11 years to the day (Feb. 12, 2014).
“I love them,” Larson said. “It’s why you do it. And everybody says that, and there’s no guarantees. More than the win, just to see the ‘compete’ at that level, but to see their excitement and joy, it’s more exciting even than the win. I’m just so happy for them to get to feel this.”
For a team that lost twice as many games as it won this season, on the road against a program that finished fourth in the state tournament last year, the Panthers sure did not look like the underdogs.
Both teams started out cold, but Snohomish led 8-4 through the first quarter. The Panthers started to build themselves a lead in the second, forcing turnovers and converting layups to quickly take a 20-7 lead just 2:30 into the frame. But Mountlake Terrace – thanks to a stout perimeter defense anchored by 6-foot-5 senior Svayjeet Singh (14 points, 4 blocks) – tightened up, going on a 6-0 run in the final 5:30 to enter halftime trailing by seven.
“We knew they were going to go on runs, that was all in our game plan,” Snohomish junior Hudson Smith said. “It was important that it wasn’t a surprise. That kept us focused, and we just locked back in in the locker room and came out with the same energy that we started the game with.”
Smith (11 points) led the scoring in the first half with six, but it was Wheat – the Panthers’ lone senior – who shouldered the offensive load down the stretch. After the Hawks cut the deficit to 26-21 with three minutes left in the third, Larson called a timeout. The play he drew up worked perfectly, ending with a Wheat 3-pointer to stop the bleeding.
“Great passes from our point guard Chase [Clark], bigs were setting good screens, it was high-level,” Wheat said. “We get the ball down low, everybody collapses, and I was just there to hit the shot for the kick out.”
Although Mountlake Terrace freshman Rayshaun Connor (14 points) hit a jumper on the next possession, Wheat responded with another 3-pointer. The Panthers brought a 34-28 lead into the fourth, where Wheat scored the first four points to go ahead by double-digits, but the Hawks would not back down.
Displaying their big-game pedigree, Mountlake Terrace applied air-tight defense to force Snohomish into mistakes. The Panthers committed a five-second violation for not inbounding the ball quick enough with 1:16 left, then sent an inbound pass the entire length of the court and out of bounds on the next possession when trying to avoid another violation. Larson threw both hands on his head. With 32.3 seconds left, the Hawks had the ball down by four.
“Rely on your practice, rely on your coaching. You know how to do this,” Larson recalled telling his team. “Trust your fundamentals, and V-cut [away from the defender] and meet the ball, and squeeze it. If you do those things, and if you hit a couple free throws, you might win this. And they did.”
With the game on the line, Mountlake Terrace turned the ball over, then fouled Wheat, who knocked down both free throws to take a 49-43 lead. It remained until the clock hit zero.
For the first time in over a decade – including Larson’s three-year stint with the program – Snohomish had a postseason win.
“It means everything,” Wheat said. “We’ve been working all season for this, all summer. Everybody’s been completely bought in for years leading up to this, and this is kind of what it [climaxed] to. … I was coming in thinking this may be my last game, but I knew these guys weren’t going to let it happen, and I mean, I’ll remember this for the rest of my life.”
Larson’s message on his first day was that he wanted to change the program, both its play and its perception from the outside, according to Smith. While Snohomish’s attention will shift to its quarterfinal matchup against second-seeded Shorecrest on Saturday, it accomplished a major goal on Thursday.
And a smaller one as well.
“I’ve always wanted to drench a coach [with water],” Smith said. “And now we got to do it, so that’s really special.”
