Snohomish boys basketball falls in 3A State opening round

Published 9:00 am Wednesday, February 25, 2026

SNOHOMISH — Snohomish boys basketball wanted it. Bad.

No matter what the scoreboard read in their 3A State Opening Round matchup against Mountain View at home on Tuesday, Snohomish scratched and clawed for every opportunity.

At no time was that more evident than with under two minutes left in the third quarter. In the minute following junior Deyton Wheat’s jumper rolling in off the rim to tie the game 38-38, Mountain View responded with four straight points to take a 42-38 lead. The visitors had an opportunity to score again before the ball was knocked loose and started bouncing towards the sideline, where Mountain View would have retained possession with an inbound in front of its bench.

Instead, senior Hudson Smith dove headfirst across the floor — somehow managing to secure possession before it rolled out — and passed it to the upright junior Grady Rohrich. Not wasting any time in transition, Rohrich sent a long pass up to junior Grant Smith, who had just one defender to beat right under the basket. Grant Smith put his back to the defender and spun into open space to score the easy layup and cut it to 42-40 with 1:38 left in the third. The sequence earned a loud reaction from the student section, rallying behind a team that refused to lie down.

The home side had its back against the wall multiple times, erasing a 14-point second-quarter deficit by the midpoint of the third quarter, and trimming an 11-point deficit down to four in the fourth. With just 21.3 seconds left, Snohomish had a chance to make it a one-possession game.

In the end, it just wasn’t enough.

The No. 16 seed Panthers (17-9) fell 69-62 to the No. 17 seed Thunder (16-7), ending a historic campaign for a Snohomish program that reached the state tournament for the first time since 2012.

“I thought they gave it (absolutely) everything they had,” Panthers coach Jeff Larson said. “I couldn’t be more proud of them. I don’t think they left anything out there. A couple shots didn’t go our way, a couple rebounds didn’t go our way. Credit to Mountain View. It’s a long trip up here (from Vancouver). They played hard, and I’ve got nothing but good things to say about my team.”

Snohomish had four different players record at least 10 points and five rebounds, led by Hudson Smith (16 points, five rebounds, three steals) and Rohrich (five assists, five rebounds), who scored all 14 of his points in the second half. Senior Luke Davis had 11 points and five boards, and Wheat tallied 10 points, nine rebounds and four steals. No players were made available to speak after the game.

For the Thunder, senior Luke Swerdlik and junior Carter Soucy each scored a game-high 17 points.

While Mountain View took a 15-10 lead in the first quarter thanks to a couple shots from senior Patrick ‘Trey’ Johnson (seven points) and a putback layup from junior Auzzi Ashdown (seven points), the Thunder did not really pull away until the second quarter, when they went on a 17-7 run to build up a 34-20 lead with just 1:57 left before halftime.

Mountain View opened the run with a pair of 3-pointers, which Davis offset in part with a steal and score underneath the basket in between. Junior Zeke Willis (15 points) made a couple big plays down the stretch, finishing an outlet pass from Swerdlik off a defensive rebound before converting an ‘And-1’ off a steal from senior Cordae Brown (six points) to make it 30-17 with 3:03 left before halftime. Davis responded with a 3 from the top of the key, but Brown scored four points to make it a game-high 34-20 lead.

A layup from junior Jack Rotondo (seven points) and a 3 from Hudson Smith put the Panthers back within nine heading into the final minute of the second quarter, and the 34-25 deficit carried into halftime.

Heading into the third quarter, Larson made sure his team focused on the right areas defensively, while also instilling trust in their passing sequences on the offensive end.

“We were so concerned with their 3-point shooting, it took us off the weak side, so they were able to curl and get to the rim pretty easy,” Larson said. “So just a reminder to play the ball, see your man and get off the weak side and not make it so easy to get to the rim.

“I thought we did a lot better job in the second half, sharing the ball and moving. We got away from that the last game or two. It was all about trusting each other and believing in each other, and don’t try to make the play; make the play that leads to the play.”

With a chance to regroup during the break, Snohomish opened the third quarter with a 13-4 run across five minutes, tying the game 38-38. Hudson Smith hit a 3-pointer on the team’s first possession of the third quarter, and Davis cut it to 37-30 with a putback layup a few possessions later.

Wheat started to make a real impact under both rims, redirecting a missed shot back to Rohrich, who drove in to swish a floater on the second chance to cut it to 38-34. Wheat grabbed a steal on the ensuing possession and converted a putback layup to make it a two-point game before tying it up with another second-chance shot. Mountain View took a narrow lead back, but Rohrich ended the third quarter by swirling in a 3 at the buzzer to cut it to 46-45 entering the final frame.

The two sides traded the lead back-and-forth through the first two minutes of the fourth before the Thunder struck on a 13-1 run to turn a 49-48 deficit into a 61-50 lead with 2:35 left. Swerdlik drilled a 3-pointer to make it 59-50, and a block from Ashdown led to a Swerdlik layup to complete the run.

However, Mountain View struggled to break the press defense that Snohomish deployed in the final minutes, turning the ball over multiple times as the Panthers reeled the visitors back in. A steal from Rotondo led to a Rohrich 3-pointer that cut it to 63-58 with 51.5 seconds remaining, and after both teams knocked down foul shots to put the score at 66-60, the 6-foot-1 guard drew a shooting foul from behind the arc to give Snohomish a chance to make it a three-point game with 37 seconds left.

Rohrich knocked down the first two free throws, and Grant Smith came up with a steal after Rohrich missed the third. The Panthers threw up a deep attempt from behind the arc, but it didn’t go. With no choice but to send the Thunder to the line as time was running out, Mountain View hit their free throws and grabbed crucial offensive rebounds to maintain possession before sealing a 69-62 victory.

In a game that could have been settled by the first two minutes of the third quarter, Snohomish kept things interesting until the end. While that’s no consolation for the players, Larson hopes they will soon appreciate what they accomplished for the program once the sting wears off. The Panthers matched their last state tournament team’s win total (17 in 2011-12), which is tied for the most in a season since 2007-08 (21-6).

“They deserve a ton of credit. They changed culture,” Larson said. “(…) That’s a generation for them. These kids were born the last time this stuff happened, so they’re creating a path that is unknown to them, and that’s really hard to do. They deserve the credit for having the courage and the commitment and the perseverance to do something that hasn’t been done in a long time.

“We’re forever grateful, and I think they’ve given us a place to start that we can build from there.”