The week in sports
Published 10:44 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008
JV team defeats Crusaders
The Mount Si JV boys’ basketball team recently defeated the Eastside Catholic Crusaders 63-60. Sam Hunston led the effort with 15 points. Curtis Beach followed with 14, JakeHandy had eight, Blake Hepner had six, Ben Emerson had five, Baker Borgen had five, Jacob Tweten had five, Brian Dec had four and Frank McLaughlin had one.
‘Cats fall to Islanders
Despite 12 points from Sam Hunston, the Mount Si boys’ JV basketball team fell to Mercer Island recently, 51-59. In addition to Hunston’s 12, Curtis Beach dropped in nine, Brian Dec had eight, Frank McLaughlin had eight, Jacob Tweten had six, Blake Hepner had five and Jake Handy had three.
Wildcats sweep holiday tournament
The Mount Si Wildcats boys’ basketball team braved the difficult road conditions across the pass and a tough West Valley Rams attack before outlasting the Yakima school in overtime recently at the Ellensburg Holiday Hoop Classic.
Senior Kevin Englund scored a game-high 27 points and Ryan Reilly pitched in 10 as the Wildcats won 65-62. The win was the second straight overtime win by Mount Si over West Valley in as many years; just last season, the Wildcats beat the Rams in overtime at Mount Si 60-58.
The Wildcats had taken an early lead of 19-10 after only one frame, but the Rams smoked Mount Si 20-4 in the second quarter, forcing the Wildcats to come from behind to force the overtime. Tied 50-50 at the end of regulation, Mount Si outscored West Valley 15-12 in the extra session.
Jordan Juarez led the Rams with 16 points, Tim Wagar scored 14 and Spencer Douglas pitched in 11 to support the West Valley cause.
In another tournament game, the Wildcats got a dose of home cooking as they took on the host Ellensburg team. The Bulldogs were not the best hosts, either, giving Mount Si another tough fight before the Wildcats won 47-41. The win was their ninth of the year; one more than they had all of last season. In 2004-2005 the Wildcats finished 8-13 on the season.
Kyle Meuli scored 11 points to lead Mount Si. Tyler Gordon scored 13 for Ellensburg to lead all scorers. Englund added seven points and 10 rebounds to pace the Wildcats. Mount Si had an 18-12 lead after the first quarter and held on despite six different lead changes in the contest. Second-chance points were a big factor as the Wildcats outscored the Bulldogs 15-0 in that department. They got that many second-chance points by outrebounding Ellensburg 38-25.
The final game was not much easier for Mount Si, but they survived another overtime thriller and came home at 10-0. The Wildcats were down for most of the game, but outscored the Hockinson Hawks of Bush Prairie near Vancouver, Wash., 19-13 in the final quarter to force overtime, then took care of business in the extra frame. Mount Si, behind a double-double from Englund of 18 points and 10 rebounds, beat the Hawks 69-66.
Clearman added 14 points and four assists; Greg Beckmann had his highest-ever varsity scoring output with 10 points; and Tommy Abbott scored 12 on a strong six for eight shooting day. Mount Si outscored Hockinson 30-18 in the paint, and outrebounded the Hawks 38-25.
Going into the second half of the schedule, which begins with a tough week this week, England (13.9 points per game) and Meuli (13.1 points per game) are leading the team in scoring and will need to pick it up a bit if the team is to stay successful. Englund also leads in rebounding, averaging 7.2 a contest. Mount Si is outrebounding their opponents by nearly six a game, a good stat they’ll need to maintain as well. The Wildcats also need to figure out how to put opponents away early in contests; they only did that once in the first half of the schedule, against Interlake. The second half of the season began last week at Mercer Island.
Girls take fourth
The Mount Si Wildcat girls, for the first time in three years of playing in holiday tournaments under coach Dirk Hansen, did not compete for a tournament title after suffering a defeat at the hands of West Valley of Yakima at the Ellensburg Holiday Hoop Classic.
The Rams beat the Wildcats 40-36. Seniors Tara Eddings and Nicole Remish each scored nine points to lead the way for the Wildcats. Freshman Madison Yakaboski, who has wowed with strong performances offensively this season, put together one on the boards with 14 rebounds. Mount Si as a team outrebounded West Valley 49-45, but couldn’t get the offense going as the team only hit 11 shots. Ball handling was very sloppy, too, as the Wildcats turned the ball over 39 times.
In two previous tournament appearances, one last year at this tournament when it was held in Yakima and another in the Phoenix area two years ago, Mount Si had made it to the finals before falling.
The loss set up what, at least presumably in Hansen’s mind, had to be a choice matchup: playing Sandpoint, Idaho. In the Valley Record’s girls’ 2005-2006 hoops preview published in November, Hansen had this to say about that possibility: “The [Sandpoint] Bulldogs. I couldn’t stand them when I played football for Coeur d’Alene, and I still can’t stand them to this day. They were our rival team as an ex-Coeur d’Alene Viking, and it’s a heated rivalry, and the way I see it, once a rivalry, always a rivalry,” Hansen said. Granted, the matchup may have been in the loser’s bracket, but he still got to coach his team against his old high-school rival, and he couldn’t have been happier about the outcome.
His Wildcats didn’t just beat Sandpoint at the tournament, they walloped them. Mount Si won by 37 points, 64-27, a margin only eclipsed by the huge Wildcats rout of Sammamish on Dec. 13. Eddings, with 15 points and 10 rebounds; Yakaboski, with 13 points and 10 rebounds; and freshman Caitie Richards, with 14 points and 10 rebounds, all had double-doubles. Richards also pitched in eight assists. Mount Si defensively was strong as well, holding Sandpoint to just eight baskets, only one of which was from outside the three-point line.
The Wildcats took home the fourth-place trophy, but it was not easy. Mount Si and the Bears of Moscow, Idaho, went into halftime tied at 21-21, but the Wildcats put together a good second half and outlasted the girls from the home of the University of Idaho 49-44. Yakaboski and Remish each scored 13 points to lead Mount Si. Rebounds and defense were key again. Although the Wildcats were outrebounded 38-37 by Moscow, Mount Si held a dominant 20-9 advantage on the offensive glass and the defense, like the Sandpoint game, held the Bears to just one three-pointer for the entire game. Symone Shaw had a great day on the boards with nine rebounds. Ball control was excellent, too, as the Wildcats turned the ball over only eight times.
Yakaboski and Richards are clearly getting it done. Yakaboski leads the team in scoring with 13.7 points per game, and also has 9.4 rebounds a contest. She is delivering in other areas too. She has assisted 45 times and stolen the ball 50 times. Richards is doing it on the defensive side with 8.5 rebounds a game, 20 blocked shots and 52 steals. She also has 49 assists to her credit. Those efforts will need to continue. Ball handling is a problem as Mount Si turned the ball over 20.6 times a game on average in the first half. The Wildcats will need to clean that up if they want to succeed in the second half of the season.
