Terrace boys edge Warriors

Jacob Champoux’s two free throws with 10 seconds left helped Mountlake Terrace clinch a berth in the district playoffs.

Edmonds-Woodway missed a 3-pointer that would have won the game as the Hawks walked away with a 60-58 victory in a Western Conference South Division boys basketball game Jan. 29 at Edmonds-Woodway High School.

“He’s stepped up on the court and off the court,” Mountlake Terrace coach Nalin Sood said of Champoux, who was the lone returning player with any varsity experience. “He’s taking good shots. … He’s a tremendous teammate.”

Champoux is connecting on close to 50 percent of his shots and he’s also leading the Hawks (7-7 in the league, 8-8 overall) in assists.

Edmonds-Woodway (3-11, 5-11) remained in the hunt for districts. The Warriors were tied for fourth place with Kamiak heading into Tuesday night’s critical game with the Knights. Edmonds-Woodway won the first game between the two teams and a second victory would give the Warriors what would amount to a two-game cushion over the Knights.

Edmonds-Woodway coach Todd Rubin liked his teams’ effort against the Hawks.

“Both teams played really hard,” Rubin said of Friday’s contest. “It just came down that they made a couple more shots than we did.”

The Warriors struggles as they have all season in the first quarter, falling behind 15-7. Edmonds-Woodway had good looks at the hoop but just weren’t hitting its shots.

“Our first quarters have been pretty consistently poor,” Rubin said. “I’m trying to fix that.”

The Warriors clawed their way back into the game in the second half.

“Our intensity picked up,” Rubin said. “We started moving without the ball, setting screens instead of standing around.”

Edmonds-Woodway missed leading scorer Josh Jordan, who was out for his seventh game with a hand injury suffered in practice. The Mountlake Terrace game was the first in a while where the Warriors were only down one player.

“We’ve had a tough stretch with injuries and close losses,” Rubin said. “We’re giving ourselves a chance to win but we aren’t finishing games off.”

Edmonds-Woodway recently has lost games by 2, 5 and 3 points.

Sood said Mountlake Terrace still has plenty to work on in the next week and a half. The Hawks are looking to secure the No. 2 seed to districts.

“We’ve got a lot to play for,” he said. “We’ve have to work on all parts of our game.”

But the three areas Sood plans to focus on are interior scoring, rebounding and the half-court defense. Mountlake Terrace allowed 61 and 58 points last week, above the season average of about 50 points.

“That was not indicative of how we want to play basketball,” he said.

While Champoux is the team’s leading scorer, other players take turns stepping up their games,

“Each one of the kids has had a shining moment at one time or another,” Sood said. “They’ve all shown they can play successfully.”