The Mountlake Terrace Hawks cruised to a comfortable 65-54 victory Saturday morning to win the WIAA 3A fourth place trophy versus the defending state champion Garfield Bulldogs. The Hawks never trailed during the game, leading from their first bucket to the final whistle.
In the final high school game for senior Jaxon Dubiel, he led the way for the Hawks with 26 points and 8 rebounds, followed by fellow senior Zaveon Jones who had yet another double double with 16 points and 16 rebounds. Junior post/forward Svayjeet Singh, senior point guard Logan Tews, and senior post Gabe Towne rounded out the scoring for the Hawks with 8, 8, and 7 points respectively.
Jones, speaking on the mentality of the team going into the game, said, “I think it definitely shifted because it’s the last basketball game of the season, you know, [and] for the seniors it’s the last basketball game ever. So you know, just coming out hot, getting a win instead of a loss.”
Jones also said that beating last year’s defending WIAA 3A state champions was a key accomplishment. “I mean it feels pretty good. We’ve neve really beat a Metro [League] team, and I think one of my goals coming was to beat a Metro League team. It meant a lot to me,” Jones said.
The Hawks started the game on an 11-0 run, putting the Bulldogs in an early hole. Jones opened the scoring for the Hawks, getting his own rebound and put-back bucket to give the Hawks a 2-0 lead. Towne quickly added to the Hawks lead with his own two, followed by a deep Jaxon Dubiel 3 to extend the lead to 7.
Things didn’t get much better for Garfield, as the run continued with a Tews bucket followed by another Dubiel score that made the lead 11-0 and forced a Garfield timeout. Garfield was able to go on a quick 5-0 run to get back into the game, but the Hawks closed out the first quarter on their own 5-0 run off of Jones to finish the first quarter with a commanding 16-5 lead.
It seemed like the game just kept getting worse for the Bulldogs, as Towne buried a trey to start the second quarter and extend the run to 8 and the lead to 14. After Garfield responded with three points on offense, Dubiel buried Garfield behind a 6-0 run in which he scored every point. This run gave the Hawks an 18 point lead midway through the second quarter.
However, Garfield didn’t go down without a fight, going on an 8-2 run that ended up being the largest of the half for the Bulldogs. This doubled their point total until that point and cut the lead to just 12. The only Hawk to score during the sequence was Singh.The Hawks responded with their own short 7-2 run, with buckets by Zaveon Jones and Svayjeet Singh, who got back to back buckets, one off of a steal to bring the Hawks lead back up to 17. The remaining three Hawk first-half points were all scored by Dubiel, and the Hawks went into halftime with a 38-26 lead, outscoring the bulldogs 22-21 in the second quarter.
The second half started with Garfield and Terrace trading baskets for the first few minutes, with Tews opening the scoring for the Hawks, followed by Towne. The Hawks were able to grow their lead back to 15 with a Jones plus one, and extend it further with a Dubiel driving layup to give the Hawks a 47-30 lead.
However the Hawks ended the third quarter on a sour note, as Garfield was able to close out the period on a 10-2 run to keep the game competitive going into the fourth quarter. The lone Hawk to score in the sequence was Dubiel. At the end of the third quarter Mountlake Terrace led Garfield 49-40. The Bulldogs outscored the Hawks in the period 14-11.
The fourth quarter started off well for the Hawks, with Dubiel scoring one from the line and later getting a layup to push the Hawks lead back to 12. Jones got another basket, but Garfield slowly started to come back into the game, going on a 9-2 run to cut the lead to 56-51 – the slimmest lead since the early moments of the game. Adding to the acrimony for the Hawks, Towne fouled out during the Garfield run.
Garfield had a chance to cut the lead to just two on a 3 point attempt, but it ultimately fell short, and the Hawks were able to effectively seal the game away by going on a 7-0 run to take the lead to 12 off of baskets by Dubiel and Jones. Tews scored the final bucket of the night for the Hawks with under a minute left, and Mountlake Terrace won by a final score of 65-54. The Hawks outscored Garfield in the paint 24-12, and on second chance points 19-8, both differences large enough to potentially swing the game.
Veteran head coach Nalin Sood kept things in perspective in his post-game comments. “Whether we win or lose, I’m always proud of these guys. I can’t put into words how proud I am, they know how proud I am. If they don’t, they don’t know me,” Sood said.
Assistant coach and academic adviser Michole Mattix also shared how proud she is of this team. “I feel like their hard work was capped off like icing on the cake. Like they’re my own, I’m so proud of them. To overcome adversity, losing a game on Thursday, a tough game where they felt like they could’ve done better. But they responded by coming back and saying ‘Life is tough but we’re tougher,’” Mattix said. “I knew they were something special when I saw them play their freshman year. To see how they’ve grown and improved and matured and come together has really been something special.”
