Mietra Smollack scored a game-high 22 points, but it was not enough as Mountlake Terrace ended Oak Harbor’s basketball season on Saturday, handing the Wildcats a 52-44 loss in a loser-out game at the Northwest District Class 4A basketball tournament at Marysville-Pilchuck.
In the opening round of the district, Oak Harbor lost 57-43 to Jackson and Mountlake Terrace was defeated 59-51 by Lake Stevens.
It was a disappointing loss for coach Brett McLeod and the young Wildcat players who lost two straight games in the playoffs to end their season with a 15-7 overall record.
“We didn’t execute very well at either side of the floor,” McLeod said after the game. “It’s a playoff game and you have to execute way better than we did. We just didn’t do it tonight.”
Oak Harbor held a 14-12 lead after the first quarter of play, but the first period proved costly as freshman point guard Jessica Denmon twisted her right ankle and was unable to perform effectively for the remainder of the game.
Denmon sat out the entire second quarter and tried to come back in the third period, but was unable to go.
“Losing Jessica really hurt us, especially when they went zone,” McLeod said. “It took away one of our best shooters and we lost that option. It also took away one of our better defensive players, too,”
Mountlake Terrace outscored Oak Harbor 19-13 in the second quarter to take a 31-27 halftime lead and the Wildcats were never able to recover.
In the third period, Smollack was the whole show for Oak Harbor, scoring all of the Wildcats’ 10 points.
“We came out and we didn’t really click,” Smollack said. “We seemed ready and we thought we did what we needed to do, but it was just the little things that we messed up on that probably would have given us the game. We seemed kind of hesitant at times, but I think we gave it our best. We have next year and we have the same people coming back, and we’re losing only one player. We’ll work hard this summer and be better next year.”
In the second half, Oak Harbor scored just 17 points and the Hawks were able to put the game away.
“I thought we could have been a team that would have won a game at district, but we weren’t able to put it together. We’ll get better and try to improve. We got some playoff experience and hopefully we’ll be okay,” McLeod said.
Clair Thiel scored seven points for Oak Harbor and teammate Janay Baeyen had six.
Mountlake Terrace had two players in double figures led by Melissa Horton with 13 points. Jesica Anissipour scored 12 points and Tatiana Heck along with Cori Pingul had nine points each.
Mountlake Terrace 52,
Oak Harbor 44
Oak Harbor 14 13 10 7 — 44
MLT 12 19 11 10 — 52
Oak Harbor (44) — Smollack 10 1-3 22, Thiel 3 1-3 7, Denmon 0 0-0 0, Russell 1 2-4 4, Baeyen 2 2-4 6, Jansen 0 0-0 0, Hendricksen 2 0-0 4, Smith 0 1-2 1, Tubo 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 7-16 44.
Mountlake Terrace (52) — Horton 6 1-1 13, Anissipour 5 0-0 12, Fritz 0 3-5 3, Hinson 1 1-2 3, Heck 2 4-4 9, Schrock 1 0-0 3, Pingul 4 0-0 9. Totals 19 9-12 52.
Three-point goals — Oak Harbor 1 (Smollack); Mountlake Terrace 5 (Anissipour 2, Heck, Schrock, Pingul).
