Mountlake Terrace ends year with victory

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE

The Mountlake Terrace boys basketball team rebounded to take third place at its own Edmonds School District Holiday boys basketball tournament.

The Hawks used a balanced scoring attack and made nine of 10 free throws in the fourth quarter to pull away from Bethel 49-37 in the third-fourth place game Dec. 29 at Mountlake Terrace High School.

The performance was in sharp contrast to a 66-45 loss to Mountain View a day earlier.

“Our guys did a better job defensively,” said Mountlake Terrace head coach Nalin Sood. “I was very pleased how the guys bounced back. We needed to get better and we did.”

Junior Karsten Strieby scored a game-high 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds, while senior Tarik Kunduklija had 10 points and 12 rebounds for the Hawks.

What pleased Sood the most, however, was the play of his three guards – Rhett Bouche, Matt Beeninga and Paul Clingan – who combined for 22 points. One of the keys for Mountlake Terrace is getting more offense out of its guards.

“Our guards need to be some kind of threat offensively,” Sood said. “Against Bethel, our three guards were offensive threats. We cannot be a one-dimensional team.”

Bouche noted that Sood talked with the three guards before the Bethel game and urged them to be more active on the offensive front.

“We just stepped up and knocked down our shots,” Bouche said. “We knocked down some 3-pointers and got some open layups. Twenty-two points with the three guards helped us out a lot.”

The main problems in the loss to Mountain View were bad matchups and a lack of intensity.

At one point in the second half, the Hawks cut the lead to eight points but Mountain View responded with a 17-5 run in the last six minutes to put the game out of reach.

“I would say 60 percent of the game wasn’t too bad,” Sood said. “The 40 percent we got outplayed was pretty bad. They’re a team we didn’t match up very well against.”

Kunduklija scored a team-high 16 points and was the only Hawk player to score in double figures.

The Thunder had five players who could shoot from the outside and was a very athletic team, Sood said. Bethel also posed some match-up problems, but the Hawks made some defensive adjustments that worked out well.

Though Kunduklija (15.8 points) and Strieby (12.5) are Mountlake Terrace’s leading scorers, Sood wants to see even more production out of his posts.

“Our shooting percentage inside the key is definitely not where we should be,” Sood said. “Our big guys have got to do a better job of finishing.”

After reviewing video of the Bethel game, Sood said that Kunduklija should have scored 20 points and Strieby could have had 25 points.

“Those guys need to step it up and finish at a higher percentage,” Sood said.

The Hawks will soon be getting some help as junior Tyler Stracener is working his way back into playing shape following a leg injury. The 6-7 center is Mountlake Terrace’s top returning scorer from last season.

The emergence of the Hawks’ guards as offensive scoring threats also will help to free up the posts inside, Sood said. “Our posts will finish better if our guards are getting some baskets for us.

“We’re not going to be an 80-point per night basketball team. (The guards) should be able to get 25, 30 percent of the points. They’re capable of doing it.”

Mountlake Terrace was 2-2 in the league heading into the bulk of the regular season schedule. The Hawks were tied for fourth place among the 4A teams with Jackson.

Sood sees two other area as being critical to the Hawks the rest of the way. Mountlake Terrace must work on its assist to turnover ratio and needs to have better shot selection, he said.

“We’ve got to play like we played against Bethel,” Bouche added. “We have to keep our intensity up and play our game and don’t focus on the other team, but focus on ourselves.”