Photo by Vince Miller
Class 3A first round: Mountlake Terrace boys survive late 3, beat Timberline to 'just keep playing'
(Lead photo by Vince Miller)
TACOMA, Wash. — A game that ultimately was won inside still came down to a shot from beyond the 3-point arc.
That shot was taken, under duress and off-balance, as the clock was running out in Mountlake Terrace’s first-round, 65-62 victory over Timberline in the Class 3A boys state tournament at the Tacoma Dome on Wednesday afternoon.
The shooter – the Blazers all-everything guard, Brooklyn Hicks. The shot from the left side beyond the arc, hit short and bounced off the side of the rim, no good.
The result – the Hawks advanced to a 2 p.m. state quarterfinal against seventh-seeded Mount Spokane on Thursday afternoon.
“Today is a barometer of ‘just keep playing,’” Mountlake Terrace coach Nalin Sood said. “We found a way to make plays. We kept them in check. We kept them below their average, and that’s going to give you a chance.”
The see-saw battle saw four lead changes in the fourth quarter and neither team holding a lead beyond three points after Miles Gurske scored for Timberline to cut the Hawks lead to four, 49-45, with 6 minutes, 49 seconds to play until the final 14 seconds.
The 14-second mark was when Vito Mkrtychyan made two free throws for Mountlake Terrace to extend the lead to five, 65-60. Until that point, the fourth quarter had belonged – at least offensively – to Zaveon Jones.
The 6-foot-2 sophomore dominated things on the interior, scoring 10 of his game-high 22 points in the final 4:20 of the game, and providing the answer to every attempt from the Blazers to get in front down the stretch.
“How could I keep my teammates in the game,” Jones said. “It was a tough, hard-fought game. Attack. I filled the lane. Attack, attack, attack.”
Jones last basket came with 35 seconds remaining, extending a Hawks lead to 63-60. After a player control foul on Gurske at the other end, Timberline was forced to foul and Mkrtychyan made both ends of his 1-and-1 free throw attempts to forge the five-point advantage.
But, with 7.9 seconds left, Hicks made two free throws of his own to get it back within three. The Blazers fouled Mkrtychyan again, but this time he missed the front end of the 1-and-1.
Timberline got the ball to Hicks who drove down the left side guarded closely. The Blazers leading scorer, who scored 21 points of his own on Wednesday, got the shot off before the buzzer.
“We were battling, man,” Hicks said. “We always thought we had the edge and we always thought we were going to make the final hoop. Every shot I shoot, I think it’s going in. That’s just my confidence level, so, letting it fly and seeing it miss always hurts.”
Hicks added 10 rebounds, giving him a double-double in the final game of his junior year. Gurske matched Jones with a game-high 22 points, while Jeffrey Anyimah added 18 points for the Hawks.
“During the season, we try not to talk too much about wins and losses. We talk about process and getting better,” Sood said. “But now, really for the past two or three weeks, it’s survive and advance. You have to find a way to do it. We want to be an inside-out program. But you’ve got to have the guys that can do it, and we have the guys that can. Gurske and Hicks got into the paint tonight, too. So it might be a push. But if it’s a push, I’ll still take it.”
---Doug Drowley; @STPWriteNow.
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