Mount Si wallops Liberty

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

In front of a large crowd on hand to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the 1977 Mount Si boys’ AA State Championship team, this year’s edition of the Wildcats played like state champions as they dominated the game from start to finish in a 70-41 whacking of the Liberty Patriots in Kingco 3A boys’ basketball action last Friday at Mount Si High School.

Junior guard Hank Kennedy scored a game-high 21 points to lead the Wildcats while senior guard/forward Jeff Bice scored 13 to lead Liberty. Junior post Jeremy Johnston chipped in 14 and senior guard/forward Chris Lyle added 13 to pace the Wildcats.

“We played well as a team. Everybody got a chance to play. We got some people some playing time and work on some timing things, and (we had) good overall effort,” said a pleased Mount Si coach Garrick Phillips, as his team held Liberty to only 16 first-half points.

Kennedy had equal praise for his team.

“Help from my teammates made it all happen,” said Kennedy.

The game opened with an alley-oop to Kennedy from Johnston and it seemed as if the fans would be in for something special on this night. The Patriots got close, but after Bice hit a basket for Liberty that got it to within 6-4 in favor of Mount Si, the Wildcats went on a 7-0 run, and that was about it for the visitors.