Sporting an undefeated 5-0 record – with an average winning margin of 31.4 points per game – spirits on the Mountlake Terrace Hawks basketball team has been flying high during the early part of the 2017-2018 season. But on Tuesday, the Hawks were brought back down to earth.

Terrace was humbled on their home floor Tuesday night as the Shorecrest Scots coasted to a 63-51 victory over the Hawks in a Wesco League match-up played at Mountlake Terrace High School.

The Scots ended the first half on a 14-3 run to take control of the game, then led by as many as 23 points in the second half to earn the comfortable win.

Down 32-24 at halftime, stumbled coming out of the break, shooting only 1-for-8 from the field and committing six turnovers to start the second half.

Terrace Coach Nalin Sood was discouraged with how his squad performed when they started falling behind to the Scots.

“We’ve got to mature up,” Sood said after the game. “We’ve got to handle adversity better. We got our backs up against the wall today and we didn’t handle it well at all.

“If we don’t start figuring out how to deal with adversity better, then it’s going to be a long season,” Sood continued. “Because there’s still a lot of good teams left; it’s still early in the season.”

Shorecrest went 22-3 last year and came into Tuesday’s clash with Terrace riding a four-game winning streak.

“We ran into a good team that challenged us – the best team we’ve played all year – and we didn’t respond the way I had hoped we would have, the way the coaches would have hoped, “ Sood noted. “So for that I’m really disappointed with our guys right now.”

Shorecrest senior guard Chris Lee led all scorers on Tuesday with 22 points, scoring his final points of the game on a dazzling, spinning drive down the lane and between Terrace defenders at the 5:42 mark of the fourth quarter.

“We didn’t guard Lee well at all,” Sood stated. “Lee put on a show against us; he’s a great player and it’s a barometer of how good we have to get.”

Two-time All-Wesco League First Team selection Philip Pepple added 15 points for the Scots on Tuesday.

Terrace was led in scoring by Connor Williams, who came off the bench to score 15 points in the loss. Mason Petersen added 11 points while Brendan Hayes contributed 10 points.

Khyree Armstead, who came into Tuesday’s game averaging 22 points per games for the Hawks, was held to seven points against the Scots.

Shorecrest Coach Brian Fischer was pleased with getting a win on Terrace’s home court.

“It’s a great accomplishment for us,” Fischer said. “It’s never easy. I’ve been here for 15 years and I can say from experience that coming here has always been very, very difficult. So we’re really proud of our guys for the way they played tonight.”

Terrace will try to get back to their early-season winning ways when they travel to Marysville-Getchell to face the Chargers on Friday, Dec. 15; tip-off is scheduled for 7:15 p.m.

Prep Boys Basketball: Shorecrest at Mountlake Terrace, Dec. 12

Shorecrest     15    17    20    11 — 63
Terrace          14    10    10    17 — 51

Mountlake Terrace scoring: Connor Williams 15, Brendan Hayes 11, Mason Petersen 10, Khyree Armstead 7, Mason Christianson 4, Keegan Grayson-Zehrung 2, Bradey Blackmer 2, Max Hull, Jesse Martineau

Shorecrest scoring: Chris Lee 22, Philip Pepple 15, Antonio Stillwell 13, Jack Sims 6, Latrell Jones 5, Eladio Fountain 2, Calvin Acker, JD Scott, Brayden Victor, Kobe Isip

Records: Mountlake Terrace 1-1 in 2A/3A Wesco League, 5-1 overall; 1-0 in 2A/3A Wesco League 5-1 overall

Mountlake Terrace next game: versus Marysville-Getchell, Friday, Dec. 15, 7:15 p.m. at Marysville-Getchell High School

–By Doug Petrowski