Picking up right where they left off last year, members of the Mountlake Terrace High School boys basketball team clamped down on defense late in their game against the visiting Edmonds-Woodway Warriors and walked away with a 64-56 victory Tuesday night in their 2013-2014 season opener.

The Hawks led by four points with 3:20 to go in the game before going on an 8-0 run to secure the win. Terrace held the Warriors to just 11 points in the fourth quarter, four of which were scored by Edmonds-Woodway on a pair of lay-ins with just seconds to go.

“The staple of our program is defense,” said Hawk Head Coach Nalin Sood following the win.

The strong defensive effort helped Terrace finally pull away from a Warrior team that stayed competitive until those final three minutes; Edmonds-Woodway even led at halftime 27-26. But the Warriors couldn’t contain the Hawks’ two senior captains, Greg Bowman and Loren Lacasse, who combined to score 44 of the team’s 64 points.

“The one thing about them, you don’t pigeon-hole them to one position,” Sood explained. “Greg even went to play some point for us. They can go inside the paint, they can shoot the jump shot, and they’re getting better at putting the ball on the floor.”

Lacasse led the Hawks (1-0) with 25 points; Bowman scored 19, while junior Isaiah Green added 10. The Warriors (0-1) were led by the 18 points of senior Jason Smarr, while their senior post player Travis Bakken contributed 14.

The Hawks return only two starters from last year’s squad that ended the season holding the fourth place trophy at the WIAA 3A State Basketball Championships. With so many new additions, some don’t know what to expect from this year’s team.

“I don’t think we’re starting over – we’re definitely not reloading; we just got new guys,” Sood said. “We’ve got a system and we’re going to try to get better at it, defensive and offensively. I think we’ve got two cornerstones in Greg and Loren who can hopefully lead us. But everybody’s got to get a little better on this team to be good in the next couple weeks (and) months.”

The next early season test for the Hawks comes on Saturday, Dec. 7, when they host the Lynnwood Royals at 5 p.m. at Mountlake Terrace High School.
MTHS Boys Basketball vs. Edmonds-Woodway, Dec. 2

Edmonds-Woodway            12        15        18        11        —          56
Mountlake Terrace               14        12        23        15        —          64

Mountlake Terrace scoring: Loren Lacasse 25; Greg Bowman 19; Isaiah Green 10; Yoel Tekle 4; Gabe Altenberger 4; Prescott Day 2; Yonnas Tewolde

Edmonds-Woodway scoring: Jason Smarr 18; Travis Bakken 14; Jordan Rice 8; Tate Budnick 7; Antonio Sherrill 6; Brady Edwards 2; Kelvin Dankwa; Trey Holland; Theo Lebesis

MTHS next game: versus Lynnwood, Saturday, Dec. 7, 5 p.m., at Mountlake Terrace High School

— By Doug Petrowski