A Feb. 10, 2015 overtime loss to the Shorewood T-Birds in last year’s season finale left a bad taste in the mouth of the Mountlake Terrace Hawks boys’ basketball team.
“Last year after our loss to Shorewood we started practicing the next day,” recalled Terrace’s Derek Anyimah.
One year later, Anyimah and his Hawk teammates are feeling very differently after closing out the 2015-2016 regular season with a 53-43 win over the T-Birds Monday night at Mountlake Terrace High School.
Monday’s victory gave the Hawks a 14-6 overall record for the year, a huge improvement from the 6-14 record the season before.
Anyimah credits the work ethic of his teammates on the squad’s big turnaround.
“It was a lot of hard work just trying to get better,” he said.
Anyimah and fellow seniors Shimron Masih, Gabe Altenberger and Gabe Powter — all part of last year’s disappointing squad – were honored prior to the start of Monday’s game, then joined sophomore Khyree Armstead in the Hawk starting line-up. Masih led Terrace in scoring with 15 points while Altenberger added 11 points for the Hawks.
To grab a victory and “to go out on a good note” in the regular season finale was a big goal, Anyimah said.
Shorewood, needing a win to secure a spot in the 3A District 1 play-in game later this week, tried to stay close to the bigger Hawks early. The T-Birds tied the game at 14-14 at the 7:25 mark of the second quarter on a Kaimana Aki three-point play, but Terrace responded by going on a 12-4 run over the next 6:50.
The Hawks went on to lead by seven points at halftime and were never threatened the rest of the game.
While last year’s Terrace squad saw no post-season action, the current flock of Hawks get to play on, entering the upcoming 3A District 1 Tournament as the no. 3 seed. The team will host the no. 6-seeded Arlington Eagles in an opening round tourney game on Friday, Feb. 12, with tip-off set for 7 p.m. Win or lose, the Hawks will play again on Feb. 16 in either a tournament semi-final or a loser-out consolation bracket game.
To see the entire 2016 Northwest District 1 3A Boys Basketball Tournament bracket, click here.
A top-three finish in the district tournament will send Terrace to a regional playoff game and one victory away from the 3A State Basketball Tournament, to be played at the Tacoma Dome March 3-5. The state championships is well on the mind of Anyimah.
“(Our goal is) definitely to go down to Tacoma,” he said.
Prep Boys Basketball: Shorewood at Mountlake Terrace, Feb. 8
Shorewood 11 10 10 12 — 43
Terrace 13 15 12 13 — 53
Mountlake Terrace scoring: Shimron Masih 15, Gabe Altenberger 11, Carson Dallas 10, Khyree Armstead 6, Daniel Johnson 5, Gabe Powter 4, Derek Anyimah 2, Joey Gardner
Shorewood scoring: Sean Kirk 14, Emil Marshall 10, Jesse Reynolds 7, Kaimana Aki 4, Will Stelter 4, Daniel Ishkhanov 3, Christian Evans 1, Naode Mehari, Abadir Mahmoud, Bryan Host
Records: Mountlake Terrace 8-4 in Wesco League South Conference, 14-6 overall; Shorewood 4-8 in Wesco League South Conference, 8-12 overall
Mountlake Terrace next game: versus Arlington, Friday, Feb. 12, 7:00 p.m. at Mountlake Terrace High School (First round game of 3A District 1 tournament; game to be streamed live on the Sound Live Sports Network)
–By Doug Petrowski
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