In an early-season showdown between 2A/3A Wesco League title contenders on Friday, the Marysville-Getchell Chargers showed that they are for real and ready to matchup against anyone in the league.

But it was the Mountlake Terrace Hawks that sent an even louder message — that they have the grit and determination to find a way to win even when they are not playing at their best.

The Hawks, down by 10 points late in the third quarter, held the Chargers to just six fourth-quarter points and finished the game on an 8-0 scoring run to snatch a 58-56 victory in the key Wesco League contest at Mountlake Terrace High School.

Terrace trailed 56-50 with 2:24 to go but a pair of buckets by Zaveon Jones and a putback by Jaxon Dubiel tied the game at 56-56 in the final minute. Then it was Rayshaun Connor that sealed the win for the Hawks.

Connor scored with a drive and acrobatic left-handed layin to put Terrace up by two with 14.0 seconds remaining.

Then after a Marysville-Getchell timeout, the junior drew the defensive assignment against the Chargers’ Shawn Etheridge; Connor kept Etheridge, who led M-G in scoring with 26 point, from getting a shot off in the final seconds as the ball was ultimately knocked out of bounds.

As Connor blanketed Etheridge during the subsequent Marysville-Getchell throw-in, the ball was tipped away by Jones and the game ended with the Terrace victory.

With his team up by just two points, Connor saw his task against Etheridge in simple terms during the contest’s final 7.3 seconds: “Keep in front of him; don’t let him get to the hoop,” Connor said.

The Hawks outscored M-G 16-6 in the final quarter, the final points coming off of Connor’s game-winner.

The soft-spoken junior said he had one goal when he had the ball during Terrace’s final possession of the game: “To get to the hoop,” he said.

Eight Hawks scored in the contest, but it was Jones who carried the biggest offensive load for the team on Friday; the senior scored a game-high 30 points. The big 6-foot-2 post player also pulled down 10 rebounds.

The win came after Marysville-Getchell (1-1 in 2A/3A Wesco League, 4-1 overall) enjoyed the lead during much of the night. The Chargers jumped out to an 8-2 start in the first quarter and outscored the Hawks 25-14 in the third when they held their biggest advantage of 10 points with 33 seconds left in the quarter.

Under M-G’s defensive pressure, the Hawks struggled to maintain any offensive rhythm in the contest, committing multiple turnovers in this just their second game of the season.

Terrace (2-0 in 2A/3A Wesco League, 2-0 overall) won’t have much time to enjoy Friday’s victory — or to iron out the offensive miscues that plagued them throughout the game.

The Hawks will next face Kentridge on Saturday, Dec. 9, as part of the 2023 Les Schwab Showdown, a full day of seven high school basketball games at Highline Community College in Burien. The Terrace-Kentridge clash is scheduled to tip off at 2:30 p.m.

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Prep boys basketball: Mountlake Terrace 58, Marysville-Getchell 56

Marysville-Getchell 8 17 25 6 – 56
Mountlake Terrace 6 22 14 16 – 58

Mountlake Terrace scoring: Zaveon Jones 30, Jaxon Dubiel 9, Logan Tews 6, Svayjeet Singh 4, Joe Asalifew 3, Rayshaun Connor 2, Gabe Towne 2, Don Brown 2, Chance Chalmers, Brody Myers-Little

Marysville-Getchell scoring: Shawn Etheridge 26, Bubba Palacol 19, Mariano Palacol 5, Wyatt Harris 3, Zach Rice 2, Marcus Milham 1, Mason Holaday, Mekai Williams

Records: Mountlake Terrace 2-0 in 2A/3A Wesco League, 2-0 overall; Marysville-Getchell 1-1 in 2A/3A Wesco League, 4-1 overall

Mountlake Terrace next game: versus Kentridge; Saturday, Dec. 9; 2:30 p.m. at Highline Community College in Burien

— Story and photos by Doug Petrowski