By Doug Petrowski

The Marysville-Gretchell Chargers drew a tough assignment in the first round of the Northwest District 3A Boys Basketball Tournament, having to face the sixth-ranked Mountlake Terrace Hawks on the road. The Chargers stayed close after one quarter, but couldn’t keep pace with the high-flying Hawks, who eventually pulled away and captured the win, 68-38, on Wednesday night at Mountlake Terrace High School.

With the victory, the Hawks move on to the second round of district play and will take on the Oak Harbor Wildcats on Saturday, Feb. 9, at 6:00 p.m. at Jackson High School in Mill Creek. The Wildcats were a 54-49 victor over the Shorewood T-Birds on Wednesday night.

Mountlake Terrace (19-2) was led by the 19 points, 15 of which came in the first half, of Loren Lacasse. Teammate Marquis Armstead scored 14 points, 13 in the third quarter alone. Jesse Zerom hit four long range three-pointers in the game and came away with 14 points.

Marysville-Gretchell (7-15) was led in scoring by the 11 points of Kaleb Seymer and the 10 points of Nathen Grimm. The Chargers, relegated to the tournament’s losers’ bracket, must now face a hungry T-Birds squad on Saturday at Shorewood High School.
In other Northwest 3A District results, Glacier Peak overcame a halftime deficit to blow away Ferndale 64-40, and Stanwood clobbered Shorecrest 63-34. Glacier Peak and Stanwood will face each other on Saturday night following the Mountlake Terrace-Oak Harbor game at Jackson High School.

Mountlake Terrace quarter scoring:    14 – 13 – 19 – 22 – 68

Marysville-Gretchell quarter scoring:    11 –   7 –   9 – 11 – 38

Mountlake Terrace individual scoring:  Loren Lacasse 19; Marquis Armstead 14; Jesse Zerom 14; Greg Bowman 6; Blake Fernandez 6; Yoel Tekle 6; LeTrae Sarden 6

Marysville-Gretchell individual scoring:  Kaleb Seymer 11; Nathen Grimm 10; Austin Miller 4; Zander Seymer 4; John McClinton 2; Jordan Hurtado; Elijah Jordan; Navdeep Manhas; Kody Phaysith