On Friday night in the Terraceum, the Hawks faced off against Marysville-Pilchuck in what turned out to be a disappointing 43-66 loss. The Marysville-Pilchuck Tomahawks came out firing on all cylinders, completely overwhelming the Hawks on both sides of the court.
To start off the game, Marysville-Pilchuck caught the Hawks flat-footed and not ready to play. They took advantage early, launching to a 9-0 lead within the first minutes of the game. By the end of the first quarter when the Hawks finally got their offense going with the help of sophomore guard Daniel Johnston’s 5 points early on, the Tomahawks had already gained a 16-11 lead.
Unfortunately, every time the Hawks built up momentum, the Tomahawks surged right back to answer. Marysville-Pilchuck guards Bryce Juneau and Josh Bevan dominated the first half in terms of scoring, putting up nine and seven points respectively in the first half. Add these scoring outputs to great defensive pressure and a struggling Hawks offense you get the Tomahawks ending the first half with a 36-18 lead.
The second half of the game was no different than the first with the Hawks only putting up 25 points in the final two quarters. Junior forward Derek Anyimah led the team in scoring with 14 points and junior wing Gabe Altenberger right behind him with 11 points.
Offensively, the Hawks really struggled trying to break the various defensive zones run by the Tomahawks. Whether it was a 2-3, 3-2, or 1-3-1 zone, the Hawks never caught a break. This was especially due to the overall poor execution and a massive amount of turnovers by the Hawks on that side of the court.
“Our offensive execution was really poor today,” Head Coach Nalin Sood said. “We didn’t run what we wanted to run. It was a lot of carelessness on our passes. We had so many turnovers and guys couldn’t figure out how to cut the turnovers down. That’s what the basketball game came down to.”
Defensively, the Hawks looked shell-shocked as the Tomahawks carved through the defense effortlessly, especially thriving on fastbreaks. A lack of transition defense to stop these fastbreaks on the Hawks part was especially responsible.
“It was on the guards, and they did a poor job of getting back on defense,” Sood said. “We got beat especially on those transition baskets.”
The lack of transition defense this game was only exposed even more due to a lack of being strong on the offensive glass. Being able to lock down the glass and get rebounds is important for a team that lacks size, and the Hawks very much struggled with this.
“We don’t have a lot of size. Right now, some of our guys don’t want to get in there and be as big and strong. . . Its not about being physically big, but we need to have guys that play big,” Sood said.
All in all, this game will be a good learning experience for the Hawks. It’s early in the season and the team is still trying to find its rhythm. Although the Hawks may have been beat in multiple facets, they’ll only improve on these weaknesses and come out more prepared for the next game.
“Our guys have some soul searching to do,” Sood said. “We need to learn from this. . . if you don’t learn from history, you’re doomed to repeat it.”
The Hawks now fall to 1-1 as they head into another home game Saturday night against their rival, the 0-2 Lynnwood Royals. The game will take place at 7 p.m. in the Terraceum.
