The Lady Wildcats of Mount Si resumed their KingCo 3A schedule
on Wednesday night, Jan. 5, with a 52-45 win over Interlake on the
Saints’ own court. The victory marked the first conference win for the young
squad and put the team at 1-3 in league play.
Interlake got off to a good start, going ahead 14-9 by the end of
the first quarter. Unfortunately, the team’s shooting prowess then departed
the building, as the Saints gave up 31 points to the Lady `Cats over the
following two quarters while only scoring 15 of their own. In the fourth,
the Saints put up 16 to Mount Si’s 12, allowing them to draw back within
striking distance, but it was the classic case of too little too late.
Senior Lindsay Ratcliffe led the charge for the `Cats, dumping in
16 points _ 10 of which came in the third quarter _ while Jessii Raisio
and Moriah Hover turned in 11 and 10 respectively. Freshman starter
Nicci Landdeck was particularly damaging at the boards, pulling down 10
rebounds while putting up nine points of her own.
The victory put the team in good shape to host arch-rival Cedarcrest
on Friday. Tuesday night the Lady Red Wolves had lost a close one to
Liberty, and they came into Snoqualmie looking for revenge in one form
or another. Unfortunately, they found it within the suddenly friendly
confines of the Mount Si gym.
While Coach Dirk Hansen described the contest in advance as
“the game of the week,” his young
charges weren’t able to rise to the challenge and came out on the bitter end of
a 51-36 score. Mount Si took the tip but Cedarcrest scored first, then
scored again off a botched pass and never looked back.
With the coach yelling “intensity!” from the bench, the Lady `Cats
attempted several long shots that banged off the rim. Cedarcrest remained
hot at the charity line, regularly sinking the foul shots, while Mount Si
spent the majority of the game trying to get on track.
The Wildcats’ problems with ball handling and passing didn’t
help. Cedarcrest regularly stole passes and then stormed down the court,
putting them on top at the first quarter 15-6. Mount Si appeared to be putting it
together in the second quarter, outscoring Cedarcrest 11-7, but
the Wolves responded after the halftime break, outscoring the home team
29-19 to put the game away. Cedarcrest’s Erin Townsend, who had
dominated at both ends of the court throughout the contest, put the final nail in
the coffin with a little over a minute left in the game when she sank two of
two from the foul line.
Landdeck led the Mount Si scoring with 11 points, followed by
seniors Ratcliffe and Raisio with 9 and 6 respectively.
Afterwards in the locker room there were long faces and sharp
words from Coach Hansen. When asked what the difference was between
his team’s winning against Interlake Tuesday and Cedarcrest on Friday, he
replied, “Energy.”
“This was a game we needed to win,” Hansen said. Turning back to
his squad, he added, “I’ll tell you something … Mercer Island is next,
and they’re better than them [Cedarcrest]. And then we play Newport,
and they’re probably better than Mercer Island.
“We’re not out of it, but this is going to make it a lot harder now.”
The Lady `Cats hosted 2-3/7-5 Mercer Island Tuesday night.
Friday’s varsity game at Newport starts at 7:30 p.m., with the JVs taking the floor
at 5:45.
