Looking to get back to their winning ways, the Mountlake Terrace Hawks brushed off a 24-point loss from the day before and muscled their way to victory on Friday with a 67-56 win over the Lincoln Abes at the Tacoma Dome.
The win earned the Hawks (23-4) a spot in the WIAA State 3A Basketball Tournament 4th/6th place game, a contest that will take place on Saturday, 8:00 a.m., at the Dome.
Friday’s Hawk win sets up a rematch of the 2022 3A state 4th/6th place game between Mountlake Terrace and the Garfield Bulldogs, a contest well on the mind of those on the Terrace squad who were just sophomores and freshmen then when the team lost to the Bulldogs 80-56.
Terrace, the No. 5 seed in the 3A tourney, used a big scoring performance by senior forward Jaxon Dubiel and a strong effort by front line big men Zaveon Jones, Gabe Towne and Svayjeet Singh to defeat the No. 17 seed Abes (21-8) in this win-to-stay-in battle.
Dubiel led the Hawks with 23 points in the victory, 19 coming in the first half when he sank nine of 12 shot attempts and pulled down six rebounds, four off the offensive boards.
“I knew we were going to win that game,” Dubiel said after the game. “We’d been here before; we knew what we needed to do. We knew they were a very good team, but if we play how we play we can beat anybody. So we just came out with that mentality. And that first half was big for us.”
Brimming with confidence, Terrace built up a 39-20 halftime lead after outscoring Lincoln 23-8 in the second quarter. While Dubiel was supplying much of the offensive push, it was Jones, Towne and Singh that were controlling the paint. As a team, the Hawks out-rebounded the Abes 24-7 in the first half.
The defensive effort by the Hawk front line was key too, holding Lincoln’s 6-foot-5 leading scorer Omarion Boston to just six first half points.
While Terrace enjoyed the run of play in the first half, the Abes fought back after the halftime break as Boston scored 13 of his game-high 25 points in the third quarter. Then trailing by nine points, 50-41, going into the fourth quarter, Lincoln started utilizing a full court press to try to shrink the Hawks’ advantage further.
Staying calm was vital for Terrace in order to withstand the pressure being applied by the Abes late in the game, Dubiel explained.
“We just had to stay composed, not rush too much because that’s what they want to do – speed us up, make us have turnovers,” Dubiel said. “So we just knew to stay composed, run our press break and we were going to be able to get it done.”
The Abes were able to cut the Terrace lead to 60-53 with 2:35 to go in the game after a LaVhanta Sandling-Green backcourt steal and assist to teammate TeShawn Ports-Jackson. But a potential Lincoln comeback was stymied with a Towne slam dunk (his second of the quarter) with 1:37 to go, then was turned away for good with four successful Logan Tews’ free throws during the game’s final 30 seconds.
Towne ended the game with 12 points; Singh and Rayshaun Connor each scored 11 points in the Terrace win.
Singh played 23 minutes in the game, the most for the junior post/forward so far during the state tournament. Foul trouble for Towne (who had picked up his fourth foul with a minute to go in the third quarter) and Jones (his fourth foul came 38 seconds into the fourth) factored into Singh’s increased court time late in the game.
“It felt great to be out here playing,” said Singh. “Two years ago we lost to Garfield. Now we want to get it back,” said Singh.
Dubiel also recalled the defeat to Garfield in 2022. He said the team will be well-motivated to avenge that loss when the two teams match up early Saturday morning at the Dome.
“Now we’ve got to come out with energy; 8:00 a.m., it’s a little early for us but we’ll be ready,” Dubiel said.
To view the entire WIAA State 3A Basketball Tournament bracket, visit WIAA WPA network.
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