Defensive breakdowns in the second quarter led to a 61-44 lost at Mountlake Terrace for the Oak Harbor High School girls basketball team Tuesday, Dec. 22.

Oak Harbor (0-4, 0-8) hosts the Santa Slam holiday tournament next week. The Wildcats face Eatonville at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 29. Anacortes and North Thurston meet at 5:40. The two losers square off at 5:40 Thursday, Dec. 30, followed by the winners at 7.

Against Mountlake Terrace (3-3, 3-5), Oak Harbor scooted to a 17-15 first quarter lead, but things fell apart in the second period.

Coach Trisha Clayville said, “In the second quarter we didn’t score and we didn’t play defense. They scored at will.”

The lapse allowed the Hawks to go up 35-25 at the half. Oak Harbor cut the lead to 46-38 after three, and trimmed it to six at one point in the final quarter.

With 1:38 left in the game and down by seven, Oak Harbor began to foul. Mountlake Terrace hit 9-of-12 free throws in the fourth quarter to secure the win.

Clayville said, “If we didn’t put ourselves in a hole in the second quarter we wouldn’t have had to foul at the end and we would have been in the game.”

One positive, Clayville said, was the play of posts Ciera Wiser and Adrianna Royal. Wiser scored 12 points and Royal five on strong post moves and work on the offensive boards, Clayville said.

Janelle Yoshimoto paced Oak Harbor with 13 points, Annie Leete added eight, Clarissa Abadesco four and Dominique Jackson two.