The Mount Si Wildcat varsity girls' basketball team officially clinched their Kingco Tournament ticket to Bellevue Community College last Tuesday night as they used stifling defense to dismantle winless Sammamish.

Madison Yakaboski scored 18 points, while Caitie Richards added 15 as the Wildcats rolled with a 59-27 win. Anna Martin led the Totems with nine points.

Tough defense was the story as the Wildcats stole the ball officially 25 times, although there appeared to be many more than that. Freshman Traci Nelson was pleased. "We did really good defensively as a team tonight in the second quarter," Nelson said. She added, "Our new press that we tried out tonight, it was really good." Mount Si defensively took control from the opening tip, pouncing on almost every Sammamish mistake.

Everyone had a hand in it, too, as Wildcat coach Dirk Hansen gave all his players, including Nelson, fellow freshmen Karly Thompson and Allysa McLauchlin and junior Hannah Hames - who had not seen much, if any, varsity playing time this season - quality time on the floor as the team prepared for the postseason. McLauchlin paced the Wildcats with eight points.

"That's exactly what they need, these young girls need time. You don't get better by sitting on the bench, but some of them just need to get out there and get some quality time on the floor and get to feeling good about themselves and that way it's not such an eye opener to them when they are out there," Hansen said.

The win also clinched a SeaKing District tournament berth for Mount Si. Due to format changes to the Kingco Tournament as the result of all of the weather-related makeup games, the top four teams in the league in the regular season clinched berths to the BCC portion of the league tournament, and automatic district berths.

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