‘Cats sweep week
Published 7:58 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008
It was a big night last Tuesday for Mount Si senior Kyle Meuli. Meuli scored a game-high 20 points and led the Mount Si Wildcats boys’ basketball team to a quality league-opening win over Issaquah.
Fellow senior Tylor Littlejohn added 14 points off the bench as the Wildcats used a strong second half to defeat the Eagles 55-46 at Issaquah High School.
Senior center Ben Lavigne put together a double-double – 12 points and 10 rebounds – in a losing cause for the Eagles, who are adjusting to life without arguably their best player the last four years, Garrison Carr, who graduated last year.
Mount Si shot 46 percent from the floor in the contest, and also got seven rebounds from Meuli to add to his fine efforts.
Ralph Lewis, a senior forward, added 13 points to pace the Eagles.
The Wildcats opened their home schedule last Thursday and, in a turnover-filled contest, Mount Si narrowly beat a Liberty team many expect to finish in the conference basement this season.
Balanced scoring, led by Meuli’s 14 points, helped the Wildcats to a 52-44 victory. But that was overshadowed by all the turnovers by both teams. An exact count was not available to the Valley Record, but it’s safe to say those that were there saw quite a few. Chalk it up to nerves.
“We didn’t play very well,” said Mount Si Coach Garrick Phillips. “It was almost like we were tight. I think the kids were so excited for a huge crowd; we’re getting wonderful support at school, and getting some recognition in the paper and from our student body, and I think we were overexcited to play basketball.”
Junior Ryan Peterson did much of the damage for Liberty, scoring 23 points to lead all scorers in the contest.
The Patriots blew out to a quick 7-0 lead to open the game, and it appeared Liberty was on its way to a huge upset. The Wildcats, though, had other ideas, as they cut their deficit down to two to end the first frame behind a strong effort from Littlejohn. The second quarter was a tight one, but Mount Si was able to take a 17-14 lead into the halftime break. It remained tight to open the second half, but within the last minute of the third quarter Meuli and Ryan Reilly combined on an 8-0 Wildcats run that provided the cushion needed to seal the victory. Reilly finished with 12, and Tommy Abbott 10 to pace Mount Si.
Reilly thinks Liberty was inspired to play hard. “Every team comes out thinking that ‘We know we’re the best; we think we’re the best” so, I mean, a team like Liberty, they have nothing to lose,” he said.
The victory was a nice exclamation point on a fine birthday for longtime Wildcat varsity assistant and head junior varsity coach Geri Spalding, who saw all three teams – C, junior varsity, and varsity – win on his birthday. Spalding’s JV team won in dramatic fashion on a late three-pointer by Blake Hepner.
Mount Si on Saturday defeated Bothell at Bellevue Community College. Abbott scored 17 in a 51-45 win.
The Wildcats are at Interlake on Friday at 7:30 p.m. The Saints are not the same strong Interlake club that made a lot of noise the last couple of years, after having lost all of their keys to success from that two-year run. Mount Si returns home to face Eastside Catholic in a nonleague game Dec. 21 before the holiday break.
