The Anacortes High School boys basketball team returns a handful of regulars from last season’s state tournament squad and expects to make a deep run in this winter’s playoffs.

Oak Harbor won’t dispute that claim as the Seahawks buried the visiting Wildcats 81-50 Tuesday, Nov. 27, in the season opener for both schools.

A cascade of Oak Harbor turnovers and successful Anacortes’ three-point shots played a key role in determining this one. The Wildcats had 26 mistakes to the Seahawks’ eight and was out-scored off turnovers 30-3.

Anacortes hit 10 of 29 three-pointers, 34.5 percent, to just two of 13 for Oak Harbor, 15.4 percent.

A rash of Wildcat turnovers helped Anacortes race to 29-9 and 44-18 leads the first two quarters. At one point late in the game, the gap was 38, 76-38.

Oak Harbor coach Mike Washington Sr. said, “We were stunned at the start of the game. Got down by too much in first quarter and could not recover. We were not patient and had missed assignments which caused turnovers and open threes.”

Chris Hailer paced Oak Harbor with 12 points and seven rebounds. Drew Washington added eight points and six boards. Dayne Herron, Cortez Ridley and JoJo Webster each scored six points; Fred Webster had four, Tony Stewart and Dyllan Harris three each and Forrest Brown two. Gabe Groeing pulled down six rebounds.

Anacortes shot 44 percent (30-for-68) from the field and 73 percent from the line (11-for-15). Oak Harbor was 43 percent (21-for49) from the field and only 15 percent from the line (6-for-15).

Oak Harbor goes to Snohomish at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 4. The Panthers lost 64-18 Tuesday to Glacier Peak in the first-ever meeting between the two Snohomish high schools.