MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — The Mountlake Terrace girls basketball team appears to be suffering from a split personality.
The malady is costing the Hawks games, including last week’s Western Conference 4A South Division clash with Shorecrest.
Mountlake Terrace struggled both on offense and defense against the Scots in the first half but then the Hawks got their act together in the second half, erasing a 10-point deficit and almost pulling out a much needed victory.
Shorecrest’s Banimi Lawson, however, sank a couple of key late baskets and made the defensive play of the game by swatting down a shot that would have given the Hawks the lead with about 30 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, as the Scots prevailed 49-46 Jan. 30 at Mountlake Terrace High School.
Mountlake Terrace’s slow starts are frustrating to senior forward Erin McEntire.
“The last couple of games, I don’t know why … we’re not ready to play,” McEntire. “If we can stop that we’re going to win all of our games. We had a 12-point deficit in the first quarter and we came back and outscored them in the entire second half.
“If we can just get rid of that 12-point deficit in the first quarter we’d be fine.”
Earlier in the week, Kamiak topped Mountlake Terrace 58-50 in another game where the Hawks started out slow. The Knights outscored Mountlake Terrace 18-13 in the first quarter.
Hawks coach Kim Stewart saw far too many mistakes on offense from his team last week.
“We have to stop our turnovers in the first quarter,” he said. “We’ve got to make some changes. That’s hurt us in the last two ball games big time. If we can correct that, it’ll be a whole lot different outcome.”
Against Shorecrest, Mountlake Terrace took a 5-4 lead at the 5:01 mark of the first quarter on a 3-pointer by junior guard Erica Cumbee, but then was outscored 15-2 the rest of the quarter. The Scots took a 31-21 lead into halftime.
“I don’t know what happens during halftime but in the second half we come out and we play with so much more passion than we do in the first half,” McEntire said. “If we can just get that in a bottle and use it in the first half … we’re a good team. We just need to focus during the first half.”
A few adjustments on defense in the second half enabled the Hawks to cut the deficit to 37-33 by the time the two teams headed out for the fourth quarter.
“We turned it up a notch a little bit defensively,” Stewart said. “We tried a couple different things defensively. We weren’t getting through their screens very well, so we tried a couple of different zone things that seemed to work and got us back in the game.”
Back-to-back baskets by McEntire to start the fourth quarter tied the score at 37 before Shorecrest regained the lead with a pair of free throws by junior forward Amy Farquhar and a putback by senior guard Karis Grounds.
McEntire then made two free throws and freshman Tatiana Heck hit one of two free throws to close the gap to 41-40 midway through the fourth quarter.
It was then Lawson’s turn to sink back-to-back baskets to give Shorecrest a 45-40 advantage with 2:37 remaining in the game.
“She’s a good player,” McEntire said of Lawson. “She’s strong. I think we just needed to play a little bit tougher on her and not let her get those shots.”
McEntire cut the deficit to 45-42 but a putback basket by Farquhar once again extended Shorecrest’s advantage.
Mountlake Terrace made one final push with Heck scoring on a wide-open layup and then connecting on another basket to cut the Shorecrest lead to 47-46 with 37 seconds left.
The Hawks’ defense then forced a turnover and appeared to be heading for a fastbreak layup that would have given them the lead for the first time since 5:01 mark of the first quarter.
But a fast closing Lawson blocked the layup attempt and the Hawks subsequently missed a 3-pointer.
“That was an incredible block by that girl,” Stewart said. “It was clean. It was a good block.”
Because Mountlake Terrace only had three team fouls, it was forced to foul four times in order to send the Scots to the foul line.
Shorecrest sophomore guard Mary Tseng sank both of her free throws with three seconds left to seal the victory.
Mountlake Terrace finished the week 5-8 in the league and 5-10 overall, still a half-game behind Jackson (5-7, 6-8) for the league’s fourth and final district playoff berth. The Hawks are scheduled to travel to Jackson for a key 7:30 p.m. matchup tonight (Friday, Feb. 6).
“If we come out as a team like we do in the second half in the first half, we’ll be just fine,” said McEntire, who scored a game-high 22 points.
Mountlake Terrace junior guard Ashley Grover added 11 points. Shorecrest was led by Lawson, who scored 13 points, and Katie Dewey, who had 11.
The progress of the Hawks, whose roster only includes one senior (McEntire), is significant, according to Stewart. Games, such as the one against Shorecrest, can only bolster the team, he added.
“We just need to get better every single time we play,” Stewart said. “I think if anybody took a look at us the first couple of games and they looked at us now — we’re not even close to the same team and we are getting better every game. With young kids, the more different types of situations we put them in… we’ll get them ready for the end of this year.”
NOTES
SWAN SONG: A fixture on the sidelines at Mountlake Terrace High School, coach Kim Stewart has decided this will be his final season coaching basketball. After 25 straight years of coaching, Stewart is making other plans for next winter.
“I counted up the days the other day. I haven’t had a winter break off since 1969 when I was playing,” Stewart said. “I don’t know anything else between winter break besides practice and games and tournaments and all that. It’s time. My wife has been very polite for 25 years during this whole thing and we’ve got some plans and some stuff we want to do during that time.”
Stewart previously coached at Ballard, Ingraham and Lynnwood high schools. He was a three-year starter and captain at the University of Washington under legendary coach Marv Harshman. Stewart also was the Husky junior varsity coach for one season.
Stewart was a fifth-round draft choice of the Los Angeles Lakers and played professional basketball in Europe for one year.
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