The Mountlake Terrace boys basketball team jumped out to a 12-4 early lead in a Mountlake Terrace High School Holiday Tournament opening game against West Seattle Monday night, but poor ball handling and a hot-shooting Wildcat guard would doom the Hawks to their fifth loss in a row.

West Seattle defeated Mountlake Terrace 54-47 at Mountlake Terrace High School.

Wildcat Nate Pryor scored 28 points to lead West Seattle to the win. The sophomore guard shot 70 percent from the field in the second half, converting four 3-point attempts and going 4-for-4 from the free throw line.

“Obviously we didn’t have the horses to go guard that guy and check him as well as we wanted,” said Hawks head coach Nalin Sood. “We tried two guys on him tonight and the kid had some success on us.”

Pryor’s biggest shot was with 3:18 left in the game when the sophomore drained a 3-point bomb as the shot clock expired, putting the Warriors up 48-40 and ending any threat for a Mountlake Terrace comeback.

Pryor’s strong second half takeover followed a wild first half during which his West Seattle teammates had wrestled the lead away from the Hawks with a 14-0 first half run over a six-and-a-half minute time frame. The Mountlake Terrace scoreless stretch was primarily a result of numerous turnovers, a symptom the Hawks were afflicted with throughout the game.

“You create your own good fortune or you create your own bad luck,” Sood said. “And where we’re going — 19 turnovers for the game — we’re creating our own bad luck.”

“It’s across the board; there’s not one guy that’s immune from the fact that we’re not handling the basketball and making good decisions,” Sood said.

“That was our number one key tonight, to handle the basketball. We’re putting a big emphasis on it in practice, we’re talking about it before the games. I don’t know, maybe we’re spending too much time on it — that might be a problem right there.”

Junior Shimron Masih led the Hawks in scoring with 15 points, hitting six of his eight shots from the field and going 3-for-4 from the free throw line. Derek Anyimah added 12 points for Terrace.

With the Mountlake Terrace loss, Wesco teams went 0-4 in the first day of the Holiday Tournament. Marysville-Pilchuck fell to Centralia 74-68, Lynnwood was blown out by Blanchet 69-48 and Lake Stevens was defeated by Bellingham 59-51.

– By Doug Petrowski

Prep Boys Basketball: West Seattle at Mountlake Terrace

West Seattle                8        13        19        14        —          54
Mountlake Terrace    12          8        12        15        —          47

Mountlake Terrace individual scoring: Shimron Masih 15, Derek Anyimah 12, Gabe Altenberger 9, Ryan Lacasse 6, Joey Gardner 3, Daniel Johnson 2, Gabriel Powter, Justin Hopkins, Ali Shah

West Seattle individual scoring: Nate Pryor 28, Melvin Arrington 12, Andre Moore 5, Carter Golgart 4, Chaaka Trahan 2, Gabe Gangon 2, Kevin Wright 1, Tyler Lenzie

Records: Mountlake Terrace 1-1 in Wesco League, 2-6 overall; West Seattle 1-1 in Metro League, 4-4 overall

Mountlake Terrace next game: vs. Lake Stevens, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 3p.m. at Mountlake Terrace High School

West Seattle next game: vs. Bellingham, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 7 p.m. at Mountlake Terrace High School

MTHS Holiday Tournament schedule, Tuesday, Dec. 30

1 p.m. — Marysville-Pilchuck vs. Lynnwood
3 p.m. — Lake Stevens vs. Mountlake Terrace
5 p.m. — Centralia vs. Blanchet
7 p.m. — Bellingham vs. West Seattle