Wildcat seniors close out on strong note

Published 8:45 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

SNOQUALMIE – It was the ultimate gift on senior night as Mount Si’s five veterans took to the floor for the entire fourth quarter to seal a Sea-King District Tournament berth with a victory over cross-Valley rivals Cedarcrest High School.

All five seniors, Christie Leatiota, Karin Brevick, Rachael Perrell, Landa Pastrana and Sabrina Porterfield, were showered with gifts and flowers prior to the game, and brought their careers full circle with the 70-35 win over the Red Wolves to earn a second-place finish in the Valley Division.

Brevick, and juniors Rachel Travis and Whitney Beyerlin, all scored 16 points each in the victory.

“We played really well as a team. It was fun,” said Pastrana.

Porterfield was thrilled to play the entire final quarter with her fellow senior teammates.

“It was a lot of fun, and it was a great memorable experience for our last home game here, and it was a really good game to end on,” she said.

The Wildcats’ coach Dirk Hansen was pleased to clinch a return trip to the district tournament.

“We feel fortunate to be in this spot and we worked hard, but yet on the other hand we also feel we’ve earned it,” the coach said. “Tonight was [the seniors’] night and we wanted to make sure that they got plenty of minutes out there playing tonight because that’s important.”

Freshman Marcie McCoy led the Red Wolves with 10 points. Juniors Allyson Hammontree and Karen Lawton paced Cedarcrest with six points each. Fellow junior Diane McKenney left the game midway through the first quarter after injuring her knee and did not return.

Mount Si, their regular season now over after their game last Friday, a loss to Issaquah, now looks to move farther in postseason than they did last year. The Wildcats finished a disappointing fifth in the Kingco Conference tournament last season, then had their postseason dreams ruined on a last-second loss to Cleveland (Seattle) in the first round of the Sea-King District Tournament. All of the major players from that Mount Si team last season are back, with the exception of Nicci Landdeck, who graduated.

To avoid a repeat of last year’s disaster, Pastrana says the Wildcats should “play as a team and have fun.”

Hansen is more specific.

“The key for us, like it has been all year, is we just need consistent play from our inside players. We’ve been pretty consistent from the perimeter all year but we still need a good night from our inside players as well as our perimeter players for us to go anywhere in the playoffs, plain and simple,” said Hansen.

The slate of teams will be difficult, with Bainbridge, Cleveland, Chief Sealth, Rainier Beach, Lakeside and Bishop Blanchet among the likely playoff opponents from the Metro League, along with the Kingco’s own Issaquah, Bellevue and Skyline. With only four berths to state, there will likely be some good teams staying home. Among those could be Mount Si.

Don’t tell that to Brevick.

“We’re going to state,” said the senior center.

Although the Wildcats are poised to make a strong run, the likelihood is they’ll have to win at least three in a row to make it to state.

The team’s first game will be on Thursday at 4:45 p.m. against either the Sammamish Totems or Newport Knights in the Kingco Tournament. Mount Si will then play Saturday at either 12:45 or 4:15 p.m. against an opponent to be determined. All games this week are at Bellevue Community College’s gymnasium.