A day after the Seattle Seahawks pulled off a miraculous come-from-behind victory in the NFC Championship game, Mountlake Terrace High School boys basketball coach Nalin Sood used the Seahawks’ victory as inspiration for his squad prior to their match-up Monday against the Thomas Jefferson Raiders.

And while the Mountlake Terrace team did show some of the same never-give-up spirit that many saw in the Seahawks on Sunday, the Hawks effort didn’t end as favorably as they came up just one point short of victory.

The Raiders defeated Mountlake Terrace 49-48 in the opening game of the Martin Luther King Day Hoops Showcase at Eastside Catholic High School in Sammamish.

Mountlake Terrace was able to come back from first-half deficits of as many as 12 points to challenge for the victory, even taking a two-point lead early in the fourth quarter. But the Raiders, behind the 19 points of junior Darius Anderson, did just enough to hold off the Hawks and grab the win.

After the Hawks took their only lead of the game, 39-37 with 5:19 to go, Thomas Jefferson went on a 9-0 run over the next four minutes to go up 46-39. Mountlake Terrace pulled to within 48-45 with :06 seconds left after a Joey Gardner 3-pointer, but an Anderson free throw with :05.1 left pushed the Raider lead to 49-45. Hawk Gabe Altenberger hit an uncontested 3-pointer at the buzzer to make the final score 49-48.

After playing from behind for most of the game, Sood was disappointed but resigned with the outcome. “That game came down to a couple plays in the last minute-and-a-half or two, and that’s what you ask for right now,” he said.

Thomas Jefferson controlled the early going, scoring the first 12 points of the game, converting six of eight shot attempts from the field in the first five-and-a-half minutes, and leading at the end of the first quarter 18-7.

“You can’t dig yourself a hole that early,” Sood said. “They’re a good team.”

Despite the big deficit, the Hawks battled back with better defense from the start of the second quarter on and solid 3-point shooting in the second half; Mountlake Terrace made six treys in the second half while the Raiders only converted two.

While Sood preaches the importance of defense to his Hawks constantly, it was the example of Seattle’s NFL team that he called upon to inspire his squad for the game against Thomas Jefferson

“It’s something that I just hope they can believe in,” Sood said of the importance of playing good defense. “It’s really tangible now because you can look at it and say, well, the Seahawks wouldn’t be celebrating and we wouldn’t be happy if defense didn’t do what they did in the first half (on Sunday). They limited Green Bay into field goals. And limiting them to field goals is what allowed them to have a chance to win, even as bad as things were. Offensively we might not have great nights, but defense gives us a chance.”

Sood admitted he brought up the Seahawks during a talk with his squad on Monday. “I don’t think Pete Carroll is using many MTHS Hawks stories,” Sood said smiling, “so I’m not going to be using a lot of Seahawk stories, except we talked about what the kids could see on TV: Russell Wilson not coming out with his head down as bad as things were; Richard Sherman, instead of getting soft, he got the guys fired up; and those guys just having a competitive fire the entire game. The kids could see that.”

The Hawks have held opponents to less than 50 points in four of their last six games, but they’ve only come away with victories in two of those efforts. With the lost to Thomas Jefferson on Monday, Mountlake Terrace dropped to 4-10 overall for the season.

The Hawks have six games remaining in their 2014-15 regular season, all against Wesco 3A South rivals. Mountlake Terrace currently sits outside the eight teams that would qualify for the postseason and will need to come up with some victories in their final games to make the 3A District 1 tournament in mid-February. It’s will be an uphill climb for the Hawks to get into the tourney, but Sood hopes a never-say-die attitude will help his squad meet the challenge.

“Every goal that this team had all the way through the end of the season, we can still work to achieve them,” Sood said.

In other games played as part of the Hoops Showcase, Jackson beat Ballard 76-70, Eastside Catholic pounded Shorecrest 69-37, Wilson defeated Glacier Peak 77-55, and West Seattle surprised Skyline 61-47.

– By Doug Petrowski

Prep Boys Basketball: Mountlake Terrace vs. Thomas Jefferson

Mountlake Terrace     7        10        15        16        —          48
Thomas Jefferson    18          8          9        14        —          49

Mountlake Terrace: Gabe Altenberger 15, Joey Gardner 10, Shimron Masih 7, Ali Shah 6, Justin Hopkins 6, Daniel Johnson 2, Gabriel Powter 2, Adam Lorraine

Thomas Jefferson: Darius Anderson 19, Preston Peters 9, Lonyae Jones 8, Xavier Scott-Hollis 4, Will Osborn 3, Alex Sommerfield 2, Kendell Harris 2, Brian Kuria 2, Anthony Gonzalez, Seth Walker, Nate English, Jacob Kuchmiy, Tyson Sonnenfeld

Records: Mountlake Terrace 2-4 in Wesco 3A South, 4-10 overall; Thomas Jefferson 2-2 in the South Puget Sound League, 8-7 overall

Mountlake Terrace next game: vs. Lynnwood, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 7:15 p.m. at Lynnwood High School

Thomas Jefferson next game: vs. Decatur, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 7 p.m. at Decatur High School in Federal Way