By Morris Malakoff
Herald Writer
MOUNTLAKE TERRACE – You don’t need a calendar to know that tournament time is drawing near. A close-fought Western Conference South Division game between the Mountlake Terrace Hawks and Everett Seagulls Tuesday had all the hallmarks of a playoff game, ending in a 70-68 overtime win for Mountlake Terrace.
“I don’t know what more you can say about a game like this one,” said Mountlake Terrace coach Nalin Sood. “If this is what the district tournament is going to be like, I will have to be inspecting the shower drains for my hair.”
In the overtime period, both teams were in the double bonus. After trading foul shots and advancing the score to a 66-66 tie, Ryan Webb scored the most critical of his game-high 33 points, a layin in traffic to give the Hawks a 68-66 lead with just over 90 seconds remaining in the period. Bennet Johnson sank a pair of free throws for the Seagulls at the 1-minute mark to tie the score at 68.
With four seconds showing on the clock, Ronald Stiel-Williams pulled up and laced a jump shot through the net to give Mountlake Terrace the winning margin.
With 26 seconds left in regulation time, Mountlake Terrace junior Steil-Williams made both ends of a 1-and-1 to put the Hawks up 64-59.
Twenty seconds later, Everett’s Jamie Lee hit a 3-point shot to pull the Seagulls to within two points of the Hawks. Stiel-Williams returned to the foul line a second later and missed the first half of another 1-and-1. Everett moved the ball up court in a series of time-consuming passes before Johnson pulled up near the shoulder of the key and sank a jump shot at the buzzer to tie the score.
The Seagulls, who lost at home by two points to Mountlake Terrace earlier in the season, relied heavily on big men Adam Moore and Sam Wertheimer. Moore, the leading scorer for the Seagulls with 25 points, kept Everett in the game with 14 first-half points. Wertheimer would finish with 17 points.
Mountlake Terrace, ahead by five after one quarter, would finish the half in a 29-29 tie with Everett. From that point, the lead for either team would not get larger than six points.
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Everett-Moore 25, Wertheimer 17, Sophan 11, Lee 11, Allison 6, Johnson 4, Cronin 2. Mountlake Terrace-Webb 33, Gearin 17, Boxley 7, Streiby 5, Stiel-Williams 4, Gibbs 2. 3-point shots-Gearin 3, Webb 2, Streiby 1, Lee 1, Allison 1. JV score-Everett 53, Mountlake Terrace 52. Records-Mountlake Terrace 11-4 in league, 12-5 overall. Everett 8-6, 10-6.Talk to us