Junior sensation Marie Will came off the bench to score 24 points for the Mount Si Wildcats girls’ basketball in a 51-30 defeat of the Newport Knights at home.

The win was the first for Mount Si against Newport since the 2001-02 season, and allowed the Wildcats to avenge the loss to the Knights in last season’s SeaKing District Tournament, and the controversial playoff game from two seasons ago to end the Wildcats’ season.

“I don’t know what to say,” said Will of her performance.

Many of the shots Will hit were amazing in their own right, and her overall play, especially in the fourth quarter, was strong. The team played solid defensively, and according to Wildcats’ coach Dirk Hansen, that was key.

“Our girls are tired of losing to Newport, and that was an uninspired Newport team out there tonight, and we’d like to take credit for it because of our defense. Our defense set the tone for the game and we set the tone in the first four minutes of the game,” said Hansen.

Rachel Travis added 11 for the Wildcats, while senior Ryan Trettevik scored 17 for the Knights. Senior center Karin Brevick is one of a number of the Wildcats’ veterans who have been part of this growing rivalry between the two teams and was happy to see the losing streak finally end.

“It feels great. We wanted it really bad and you could tell that we wanted it more than they did. It was awesome,” Brevick said. “We came out with great intensity and one thing about this team is whether we’re ahead by 20 or behind by 20, we play with the same intensity.”

Mount Si turned its defense up yet another notch last Friday when they hosted the Liberty Patriots.

Mount Si defenders were swarming Liberty ballhandlers all night. That defense helped the Wildcats to a gritty 48-36 win over the Patriots, which allowed Mount Si to roll into the holiday break at 4-1, 3-0 in conference.

“There’s one thing that we can always count on, it’s our defense, and our defense flat out won that game tonight,” said Hansen.

Travis echoed that sentiment.

“It’s not just this evening, it’s every night. It’s every practice. We all bring it every single day. Tonight was just another night. This team works well together and the enthusiasm is just great,” said Travis.

Travis led Mount Si with 11 points, while fellow junior Whitney Beyerlin, despite a disappointing 1-7 from the three-point line, paced the Wildcats with nine points. Most of the Wildcats’ swarm was aimed at Liberty’s top player, Hilary Tanneberg. Despite the concentrated effort, Tanneberg scored a game-high 14 to help the Patriots’ cause.

The Wildcats are currently in Chandler, Ariz., near Phoenix, playing in the Cactus Jam holiday tournament being held at a local high school. They are one of six teams playing in the tournament’s “Jam” division. Mount Si, Saturday morning, is scheduled to play St. Joseph of New York, then will play next Monday and Tuesday. Other teams in their division come from Alaska, New York, New Jersey, and the host school,