With a roster that includes no seniors, just three juniors and the remaining players all sophomores and freshmen, the Mountlake Terrace Hawks may be the youngest team in the Wesco League. But that didn’t stop the Hawks from winning nine regular-season games this year and earning the no. 9 seed in the postseason District 1 3A girls basketball tournament.

After splitting their first two tourney games last week, a lack of experience playing postseason basketball may have finally caught up with Terrace as the team sputtered to get started and then keep up with a much more seasoned Shorewood Stormrays squad Tuesday.

Terrace fell behind early and — despite short spurts of life — never could fully recover. The Hawks eventually fell to the older Stormrays, 50-29, in a District 1 tourney loser-out contest played at Shorewood High School.

With the defeat, the Hawks saw their 2024-2025 season come to an end with an overall record of 10-13.

Terrace got out of the blocks slowly Tuesday, missing their first nine shot attempts and shooting just 10% from the field (1-for-10) in the game’s first quarter.

“I think our nerves kind of got the best of us,” Hawks’ coach Nick Starks said. “There were a bunch of layups that we missed, maybe five or six lay-ins.”

The tournament’s no. 5-seeded Stormrays took advantage of Terrace’s early shooting woes, building up an 11-0 lead before Jordan Wagner sank a 3-pointer with 40.2 seconds to go in the quarter for the Hawks’ first points of the game.

The early deficit proved too much for Terrace to overcome. “It’s hard to dig yourself out of a hole,” Starks said.

Shorewood’s lead increased to 22-5 after senior Clara Djohan scored on a corner 3-pointer with 4:36 to go in the second quarter. But the Hawks showed some grit with a 9-0 run to close out the quarter and cut the deficit to 22-14 at halftime. Then when Terrace’s Jaliyah Dyson swished a 3-pointer with 7:03 to go in the third, the Hawks found themselves down by just five points, 22-17.

Shorewood Coach Brandon Glasser admitted that the Hawks’ 12-0 mid-game run was unnerving for his squad. “It was concerning, for sure,” he said.

Glasser gave credit for Terrace’s spirited second-quarter play and third-quarter start to Starks and his ability to install a never-give-up attitude into his squad. “He’s done a great job with them,” Glasser said. “They’re a scrappy bunch; they always fight back.”

Shorewood’s five-point lead early in the third quarter ended up being the closest Terrace would get as the Stormrays — a team made up of nine seniors, two juniors and a talented freshman — subsequently went on a 13-2 run over the next six minutes to deflate any hopes of the Hawks pulling off a road upset.

Starks said that it was primarily sloppy play by his young Hawks that doomed the team on Tuesday.

“We had 26 turnovers tonight and that’s the most we’ve had in two months,” Starks pointed out. “And they were self-inflicted turnovers. It wasn’t like they were doing anything. We just made bad passes.”

Shorewood senior Bridget Cox led all scorers in the game with 16 points, while freshman Elle Wiehle scored 10 points for the Stormrays. Dyson paced the Hawks with 11 points.

After going 3-17 last season (and without qualifying for 2023-2024 postseason play), Terrace increased their win total three-fold this year and went 1-2 against three higher-seeded teams (no. 8 Ferndale, no. 1 Snohomish and no. 5 Shorewood) in the postseason district tournament.

“I’m proud of the girls, the way we battled all year long,” Starks said. “It’s a tough conference to play and we played some tough non-conference games.”

“The goal for this year wasn’t really to go to State,” he continued. “It was just for a year of growth and kind of putting the league on notice and let them know we’re coming.”

Starks believes the growth he has seen in this squad this season will pay dividends down the road.

“We did this all year long with no seniors — everybody’s coming back,” Starks concluded. “Next year we will probably be the hunted and we won’t be hunting. Let everyone know that we’re going to be a force over the next couple of years.”

You can view the entire District 1 3A Girls Basketball Tournament bracket here. 

Prep Girls Basketball: Mountlake Terrace at Shorewood, Feb. 18 (District 1 3A Girls Basketball Tournament loser-out game)

Mountlake Terrace   3 11   9   6 – 29

Shorewood 13   9 16 12 – 50

Mountlake Terrace individual scoring: Jaliyah Dyson 11, Jordyn Stokes 4, Samiah Coffee 4, Jordan Wagner 3, Makenna Davidson 3, Emma Schmidt 2, Mia Sledge 2, Iman Kaifa, May-Lynh Jacobson, Brooklyn Marino, Abby Mattens, Abby Schmicker

Shorewood individual scoring: Bridget Cox 16, Elle Wiehle 10, Rylie Gettmann 7, Maya Glasser 5, Clara Djohan 5, Vanessa Spadafora 4, Rose Gallagher 2, Lilly Marter 1, Gabbi Santiago, Alex Mignogna, Jasmine Germain, Ruby Johnson

Records: Mountlake Terrace 4-8 in 2A/3A Wesco League South Conference, 10-13 overall; Shorewood 7-5 in 2A/3A Wesco League South Conference, 12-13 overall

Mountlake Terrace next game: 2024-2025 season completed

Shorewood next game: versus Monroe; Saturday, Feb. 22; 2 p.m. at Marysville-Pilchuck High School (District 1 3A Girls Basketball Tournament winner-to-state/loser-out game)