Boys basketball team working hard

Mount Si’s boys basketball summer league team held its own against some of the top high school boys basketball programs in the state recently at the Quaker Summer Slam tournament hosted by Seattle’s Franklin High School and sponsored by Adidas.

Mount Si opened play Friday, May 30 against Inglemoor of Kingco 4A, and picked up a 10-point win, 68-58. That victory advanced them into a second-round contest Saturday, May 31 against Rainier Beach, and while the Wildcats did their best, the Vikings proved to be too much in the end, as they took the victory 81-71. The loss against an always-tough Beach squad earned scarlet and gray a second game May 31, this time against Kingco 3A rival Sammamish, a game which Mount Si won in very close fashion, 60-58.

Thanks to that win, the Wildcats on June 1 played for eighth place in the event, but fell 68-56 to Tacoma’s Bellarmine Prep, a 4A school. Mount Si finished 14th overall in the tournament out of 32 teams entered. Host Franklin beat Rainer Beach to take the tournament title.

A large number of Kingco teams participated in the event, mostly from the 4A side.

Two Wildcats earned tournament honors: Tanner Riley, who scored almost 21 points a contest in the four games, and Lucas Zupan were named to the Baden All-Tournament team by head coach Jeff D’Ambrosio. Riley’s production was ninth-best among all players in the event and second best among all Kingco participants, beaten just barely by Bellevue’s Aaron Bright.

Mount Si’s summer team, in addition to this tournament, is playing in Franklin’s summer league, and is currently 0-2. Games for that league take place Tuesdays and Thursdays through June 19, with playoffs June 24 to 26. After this, they are scheduled to play in a tournament in July at Sammamish High School.

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