Filled with rapid ascents and one drastic drop-off, the Mountlake Terrace Hawks’ basketball season has been like a wildly unpredictable elevator ride.
The beginning was promising. With four wins in their first five games, the Hawks appeared to be headed toward a successful winter.
Then the bottom dropped out.
The Hawks lost seven consecutive games, going winless for nearly a month from Dec. 15 to Jan. 10, and their record slipped to 4-8.
Although the skid was obviously frustrating for Mountlake Terrace players and coaches, they never got too down on themselves. Throughout the losing streak, there were plenty of encouraging signs and five of the defeats were by seven points or less.
“Even when we were losing games, I couldn’t walk out of the gym saying we were playing horrible,” Mountlake Terrace coach Nalin Sood said. “We weren’t discouraged. We were playing really good defense, but we were digging ourselves a hole early on.”
Once they started putting all the pieces together and playing a solid 32 minutes — instead of having three good quarters and one awful quarter — the Hawks started to soar. Since enduring the seven-game losing streak, Mountlake Terrace has gone 9-3, including a 3-1 record in the Class 3A District 1 tournament.
After beating Shorewood 40-33 in the first round at district, Mountlake Terrace lost 55-49 in the semifinals to Mount Vernon, the eventual district runner-up behind state-ranked Glacier Peak. But the Hawks bounced back from their semifinal setback, winning two straight loser-out games: 40-38 over Oak Harbor and 56-49 over longtime rival Meadowdale.
The latter victory gave Mountlake Terrace a third-place district finish and a berth in this week’s state regional tournament at Marysville-Pilchuck High. The Hawks (13-11) play the Hazen Highlanders (20-6) of the Seamount Conference in a loser-out regional game at 5:45 p.m. Friday at Jim Linden Fieldhouse. Hazen beat Kennedy 60-52 on Tuesday in a loser-out, winner-to-regional contest.
The winner of the Mountlake Terrace-Hazen game plays the loser of Friday’s Glacier Peak-Seattle Prep game in a winner-to-Tacoma-Dome, loser-out game on Saturday.
In its quest to advance to Tacoma, Mountlake Terrace will lean heavily, as always, on its comparably talented collection of seven seniors, including 6-foot-2 wing Zach Karels (12.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game) and 6-1 post Julian Snow (10.0 ppg, 5.5 rpg).
“This senior group is a pretty tight group,” Sood said. “There’s nobody that’s head and shoulders better than anybody else. All of them earned their spot on the team.”
“Us seven seniors, we’ve been together since we were in seventh grade,” Karels said. “We’ve been through the rough times before and we know how to (get through them).”
Depth has been a huge plus for the balanced, scrappy Hawks. It allows the squad to sub frequently and play its trademark intense defense, which is often sparked by senior guard Martinez Johnson, known as Mountlake Terrace’s “lock-up” defender.
In their past 12 games, the Hawks have limited foes to an average of 45 points per game, including six games where opponents scored no more than 41 points.
On the other hand, all the subbing can be problematic for Mountlake Terrace because it’s difficult to develop a consistent flow on offense, Sood said. But the team’s depth is always more helpful than damaging.
“It’s a huge advantage for us because when other teams have to scout us they have to really think about (Mountlake Terrace’s starters), but when someone comes off the bench, they also have to worry about them,” said Karels, one of eight Hawks who average at least 4.6 points.
“We come in waves and we maximize our depth,” said Snow, the team’s No. 2 scorer and rebounder. “When one person’s tired, the other comes in. We just wear (opponents) down and keep coming.”
Another boost for Mountlake Terrace has been the late-season return of Ryan Swanstrom, a 6-9 senior post. After missing most of the season with a broken ankle, Swanstrom has played in the past six games, including a crucial 10-point, eight-rebound performance in the Hawks’ winner-to-regional triumph over Meadowdale.
“The more he plays, the better he gets,” Sood said.
“Now teams really have to think about covering all of us because (Swanstrom) is 6-9 and he’s a threat in the post,” Karels said. “It’s just added a new level to our game. We don’t have to rely on our perimeter game; we can throw it in to him.”
After emerging from the depths of a 4-8 record in mid-season, can the Hawks win twice this weekend and earn a trip to the T-Dome? They certainly believe it’s possible, just like they believed they could turn everything around after the seven-game losing streak that is now a distant memory.
“I guess we were just tired of losing,” Snow said, “and we wanted to make it to the postseason. We wanted to go out with a bang.”
Mike Cane: mcane@heraldnet.com. Check out the prep sports blog Double Team at www.heraldnet.com/doubleteam and follow Cane on Twitter at MikeCaneHerald.
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