Hawks make first playoff appearance in 16 years

MARYSVILLE — Mountlake Terrace’s two-and-out appearance at the Northwest District 4A girls basketball tournament might not seem like a notable feat.

The Hawks lost a first-round game to Monroe and then fell to Edmonds District rival Edmonds-Woodway 44-37 in a loser-out contest March 1 at Marysville-Pilchuck High School.

But considering the recent and not-so-recent history of the team, the two playoff games were a significant accomplishment for a Mountlake Terrace program that has struggled.

“Most of these kids weren’t born the last time Terrace was in the playoffs,” Hawks coach Nick Greenwell said.

Mountlake Terrace last postseason appearance was during the 1986-87 season.

“I really think we’ve turned a corner here,” Greenwell said. “I think the kids kind of like the feeling of playing more than 20 games in a season.”

The lack of playoff experience this season, however, played a major role in the Hawks’ downfall.

Turnovers hurt the Hawks, especially late in the second quarter, when Mountlake Terrace struggled to even get off a shot.

“There were key times when we could have cut (the lead) to one or two,” Greenwell said. “We had a stretch there where we had three turnovers in four possessions before we ever got into our offense.”

Mountlake Terrace had been shooting anywhere from 60 to 70 percent on its free throws the second half of the season.

But in the third and fourth quarters, the Hawks made only three of 10 from the line and two of those were the front end of one-and-one opportunities.

Mountlake Terrace (10-12 overall) nevertheless battled back from a 26-18 halftime deficit and cut the deficit to four points by the end of the third quarter on a pair of baskets by Annie Everett.

The senior guard was playing hurt, after sustaining a hand injury in the first half. Everett was playing defense when her left hand became entangled with an opposing player. Her fingers were bent all the way backwards and she played the rest of the half without much feeling in her hand.

“It hurt really bad to dribble and shoot,” Everett said.

Everett is left-handed and the injury was to her left hand.

“She was hurting but you couldn’t tell because she’s such a competitor,” Greenwell said.

Everett almost single-handedly kept Mountlake Terrace close early in the fourth quarter. Her basket a minute into the fourth quarter cut the deficit to 33-30 and then another Everett shot kept the deficit at 36-32 with 5:04 remaining.

Edmonds-Woodway’s Morgan Harter followed with a basket and two free throws as the Warriors held on to a 40-34 advantage at the 2:47 mark.

Mountlake Terrace’s Ashley Grover made two free throws to cut the lead to 40-36 but Katie Trew then knocked down a shot to extend the lead back to 42-36 with two minutes left in the game.

“Harter and Trew made big shots,” Greenwell said. “They had hands in their faces and it just went in. If you get beat, you want to make sure that the other team has to work their butts off and make really good shots to do it and I think they did. I don’t think there was much easy there at the end.

“That fourth quarter was hard-played.”

Harter led all scorers with 17 points, while Trew added 15.

Everett scored a team-high 14 points and was the lone Hawk in double figures.

Not having any playoff experience from which to draw upon was a challenge for Mountlake Terrace.

Playoff basketball requires a different mindset, according to Greenwell.

“Every other team that you see go into the playoffs, they have some role models,” he said. “They know what to do … That sense of urgency is a difficult thing to understand and translate into play or in practice. We weren’t able to do that in the second half. It did not show up in the first half but I thought we played pretty hard in the second half.”

Just playing at the district tournament bodes well for the future, Everett said.

“Our team’s really young,” she said. “So those players will know what the experience is like and will step it up and know how to get there next time.”

Mountlake Terrace will lose three starters — Everett, Kristie Coppin and Natasha Koontz.

Greenwell expects a spirited battle to fill those spots.

“I think we’ve got kids at every level that have a legitimate shot of making varsity next year, depending on what they do in the offseason. That’s the key.”