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Saturday’s matchup between the Lynnwood Royals and the Mountlake Terrace Hawks was the third one between the two rivals this season. For Lynnwood’s Cole Betancourt, the first two Royals-Hawks contests were ones he would just assume forget about, given his lack of offensive production.
“The first two times I played Terrace this season, I had four points in both games,” Betancourt said.
That all changed for Betancourt on Saturday as the junior forward lit up the Mountlake Terrace gymnasium scoreboard with a big outing.
“I don’t know; it looks like I just found my groove,” he said.
Betancourt led all scorers in Saturday’s matchup with 23 points — 15 in the fourth quarter — as the Royals slipped past the Hawks 65-54 in the Wesco League 3A Crossover Tournament winner-to-district, loser-out contest at Mountlake Terrace High School.
With the victory, Lynnwood punched its ticket to the District 1 3A Boys Basketball Tournament that begins on Feb. 11. It will be the first trip to Districts for the Royals since the COVID-expanded tournament of 2022.
The Royals celebrated the win loudly inside their makeshift locker room (a classroom at MTHS) after the game. “It feels great, man,” Betancourt said. “We came prepared today – lots of energy. And we just knew we were going to win.”
The preparation and energy was evident early as Lynnwood took a 9-3 lead minutes into the game. But the Hawks then went on an 11-0 run — finishing with a Jordan Wilson 3-pointer — to take a 14-9 lead with 1:39 to go in the first quarter.
Terrace led 18-13 heading into the second quarter, but the Royals fought back by outscoring the Hawks 13-7 to take a slim 26-25 advantage into halftime.
After a tight first two minutes in the second half, Lynnwood went on a 10-0 run — capped off by a Shan Shah drive down the lane — to grab a 39-29 lead with 3:25 to go in the third period.
It was a lead that the Royals would never surrender. The Hawks pulled to within five points, 46-41 with 5:27 to go in the game and 57-52 with 1:37 to go, but that was as close as the team could get as Lynnwood was able to hold on and secure the win.
Betancourt said it was his team’s ability to play smart in the fourth quarter that enabled them to hold off the Hawks and pick up the victory. “It was all about (making) good decisions, taking care of the ball,” he said.
Along with Betancourt’s offensive explosion, the Royals were led in scoring by Hosny El-Aarag, with 18 points, and the 13 points of Shah, who had transferred to Lynnwood from Mountlake Terrace before the start of the school year.
Lynnwood Coach Anxhelos Pere, now in his third year with the Royals, said it was the drive and willpower of his team that pushed them to victory and earn the berth into the District tournament.
“This is huge,” Pere said. “I’m proud of those boys. They earned it. They worked their butts off in practice all season long. All the credit goes to my guys; it’s all them.”
While the Lynnwood roster includes nine seniors and two juniors, it is only five — Betancourt, El-Aarag, Shah, Jaikin Chow and Wat Makuei — that enter this season with any varsity basketball playing time under their belts. So Pere emphasized that it was the team’s heart, not experience, that drove them to the victory.
“It was their work ethic and just their will to want to win tonight,” Pere said.
While Lynnwood has more losses than wins this season (1-11 in the 2A/3A Wesco League South Conference, 8-14 overall), Pere said he has never seen a desire in his players to give up. He points to a 10-hour turnaround after a disheartening 80-43 loss to Shorewood on Jan. 30 as an example of the team’s heart.
“The next day we had an 8 a.m. practice — all the guys were there (with) great energy,” Pere explained. “And I was like, these kids just want to be here, they want to have fun and just play basketball. There was never a doubt in my mind this year where I was like, these guys want to stop playing basketball.”
The Royals won’t have to stop playing just yet as the team will compete in a District tourney loser-out contest on the road on Wednesday, Feb. 11.
“It doesn’t matter to us (who we play),” Pere said. “We’re going to go wherever we go, play our butts off and see how we do.”
For the young Mountlake Terrace Hawks (one senior, one junior, six sophomores and four freshmen), the 2025-2026 season is over with a 3-9 record in 2A/3A Wesco League South Conference play and an overall mark of 3-18. This year will mark the first time the Hawks have missed the District 1 tournament since 2020.
Prep Boys Basketball: Lynnwood at Mountlake Terrace, Feb. 7 (Wesco League 3A Boys Basketball Crossover Tournament winner-to-Districts, loser-out game)
Lynnwood 13 13 18 21 – 65
Terrace 18 7 9 20 – 54
Lynnwood individual scoring: Cole Betancourt 23, Hasny El-Aarag 18, Shan Shah 13, Abdulkadir Kinteh 5, Mieron Desbele 2, Matthew Solomon 2, Jaikin Choy 2, Wat Makuei
Mountlake Terrace individual scoring: Anthony Fuentes 16, Jordan Wilson 14, Adam Desta 11, Alex Mkrtychyan 9, Oliver Shaw-Jones 4, Jasiah Hatfield, Joseph Armon, Chase Fleishman, Alexander Stokes
Records: Lynnwood 1-11 in 2A/3A Wesco League South Conference, 8-14 overall; Mountlake Terrace 3-9 in 2A/3A Wesco League South Conference, 3-18 overall
Lynnwood next game: versus team-to-be-determined; Wednesday, Feb. 11; time and place to be announced (District 1 3A Boys Basketball Tournament loser-out game)
Mountlake Terrace next game: 2025-2026 season completed
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