A tale of two halves
Published 9:16 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008
The Skyline Spartans used a strong third-quarter outburst to defeat the Mount Si Wildcats 69-48 Friday night in KingCo 3A boys’ basketball action at Mount Si High School.
Junior wingman Matt Nelson poured in a game-high 23 to lead the Spartans, and junior guard Ian Tushar, despite being Skyline’s smallest player at 5-foot-7, chipped in 18 points, several of which came on fast breaks and on three-pointers.
“We’ve been struggling in the third quarter all year long. We come out pretty fired up, but they come out more intense than us, and we need to get it back together. We just lose it every time in the third quarter,” said Mount Si senior guard Bryan Gabriel, who led the Wildcats’ scoring with 11 points.
Skyline outscored Mount Si 26-11 in the third, with Tushar picking up 14 of his 18 points in the quarter.
The first half was pretty close throughout. The Wildcats had many offensive rebound opportunities, but their inability to cash in on most of them kept the game close into the half-time break.
That’s when things changed. Skyline opened the third quarter with a pair of technical free throws by Nelson called on Wildcat Hank Kennedy. Skyline then went on a 14-2 run en route to the huge 26-11 advantage in
We’re a new team and we need to get better working together as a team
Bryan Gabriel
Mount Si guard
scoring.
The fourth quarter saw Skyline calm down a little, but again things got a little bizarre late when the officials called technicals on Gabriel and Skyline senior guard Josh Jamison. Another delay ensued, while officials sorted it out and discussed it with Gabriel. Both sides received free throws as a result, and Gabriel did not return to the game.
Several players – Jeremy Johnston, Kennedy, Erik Tierney, Jacob Waggoner and Joel Hendricks – had six points each for Mount Si to help in their efforts.
Asked what his team needed to do in order to play well against Tuesday’s opponent, Issaquah, Gabriel said, “Hopefully we’ll work harder. We’ve been working hard as a team. We’re a new team and we need to get better working together as a team and hopefully be ready for Issaquah.”
