The Mountlake Terrace Hawks won their fifth straight game to open the season when they held off the Lady Mavs in the fourth quarter en route to a 40-36 victory. Maddy Kristjanson led all scorers with 13 points despite not scoring a single point in the second half. Keely Hayes led all Mavs with 12 points.

Jaclyn Barhoum ran straight through the three Hawk defenders to the basket and hit the lay-in to start the game off. That sprung the Mavs on a 7-0 run before Kristjanson scored the Hawks first points of the game with two free throws to make it 7-2 with 5:00 left in the first quarter.

Both teams drew and committed a lot of fouls. In the first quarter, Meadowdale fouled the Hawks seven times in the first four minutes, and due to that, two Mavs fouled out in the fourth. In one instance, Kristjanson drove past both defenders and hit a lay-in while fouled. The free throw afterward made it 9-5 Meadowdale with 2:00 left. A minute later, Hayes got hit a three to put the Mavs up 12-5. In the first quarter, the Mavs were 2 for 3 beyond the arc, but finished 3 of 13 behind the line. The Hawks didn’t do any better, going 2 for 15. The quarter ended with the score 12-7, and Kristjanson had all 7 for the Hawks.

The second was much different from the first. Instead of playing man-to-man in their own half-court, the Hawks started to press the Mavs in the backcourt and Meadowdale panicked. The Hawks forced 11 turnovers in the quarter, and shut out the Mavs until there was a minute left.

On the other side, Mountlake Terrace used those turnovers to score 13 in the second. The Hawks went on an 11-0 run in the first seven minutes and finally took the lead with 5:00 left in the half when Nikkie Froehlich hit a putback to make it 13-12. After four minutes of the heavy pressure on Meadowdale, Mountlake Terrace backed off a bit and let the Mavs come up the floor. Most of the turnovers were long passes getting picked off, and once the Hawks eased up, the Mavs finally started to re-establish themselves. Finally, they broke the run when Hayes hit a 10-footer floater to push the score to 20-14. The half ended with the Hawks up 20-16.

Samantha Romanoskwi hit a lay-in just before the shot clock ended to start the second half, putting the Hawks up 22-16. After that, Meadowdale went on a 4-0 run, which doesn’t sound like much, but when only 14 points were scored in the quarter, it was significant. Hayes hit a lay-in to bring the Mavs within two, but then the Hawks came right back with Romanoskwi hitting a three to make it 25-20. Both sides were in foul trouble, as Mackenzie Bretz got her fourth foul, Froehlich got her fourth as well, and Angela Birchman fouled out, all in the third. The majority of the points in the quarter were from free throws.

Throughout the night, the Mavs went to the line 18 times but only made 9 of them, whereas the Hawks went 14 for 22. Those free throws were the difference in the game.

Going into the fourth, the Hawks held a 27-23 lead. After two minutes of no points, Hayes broke the silence with a lay-in to get the Mavs within two. Then after both teams hit a free throw, Ndey Sonko hit a lay-in to tie the game at 28-28 with 4:30 left in the game. Right after, Froehlich drew a foul and hit both of her free throws to give the Hawks a lead that would never go away. Shaian Pagaling got the first field goal for the Hawks in the quarter with a putback, extending the lead to 32-29. Then Romanoswki hit a three after getting an offensive rebound to make it 35-29 with only 2:15 left.

After an empty possession, Bretz tried to get the ball back but was called for her fifth foul of the game, and she was out. That didn’t quite stop the Mavs. Sonko made a lay-in to bring the Mavs to just a 35-33 deficit. But the Hawks drew fouls and hit key free throws to take the lead for good. When Froehlich hit both free throws to make it 39-33 with 20 seconds left, the game was pretty much over. Hayes hit a three with seven seconds left, but it took 6.8 seconds before the Mavs were able to foul someone. The Hawks ended up with a 40-36 victory.

With the win, Mountlake Terrace improves to 5-0 (1-0 in conference) on the year. Their next game is next Tuesday at home versus Arlington at 7:15 p.m. The Mavs fall to 1-3 (0-1 in conference) on the year and play again next Wednesday at home versus Shorewood at 7:15 p.m.

– By Quint Turner