What a difference one quarter can make

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

The Mount Si Wildcats girls’ basketball team used stifling backcourt defense in the third quarter to overcome a halftime deficit and rout the Sammamish Totems 49-34 in the Kingco 3A opener for both teams last Thursday at Mount Si High School.

Senior post Nicci Landdeck led all scorers for Mount Si with 15 points, while sophomore guard Rachel Travis added 12 to help the Wildcats. Freshman wing Jenny Cromwell scored 10 points to lead the Totems.

“That’s what we want to try to consistently do every single night is just come out and play the best defense we can,” said Mount Si coach Dirk Hansen.

“My girls are going to make mistakes, we’re not perfect, and I’m just really proud of the way we played tonight because I thought Sammamish played really hard,” he said.

The first quarter opened with both teams each hitting their first two shots, then Sammamish used free throws and good defense to take control. With the Totems up 9-4, however, that changed as the Wildcats went on a 6-0 run that included a Landdeck basket with 10 seconds left, to propel Mount Si into a 10-9 lead at the end of the quarter.

For the complete story, pick up a copy of this week’s Valley Record