Coach Dirk Hansen said it’d be a tough first half of the season, and

last week – once again – the young Mount Si Lady Wildcats found out just

how tough it could be. This time the squads from Liberty and Bellevue

high schools provided the book learnin’.

Last Monday night’s 59-66 loss to the Patriots was another one of

those back and forth contests that left the `Cats a few points behind when

the final buzzer sounded. Senior Lindsay Ratcliffe led the charge, dumping in

a total of 15 points. Jessii Raisio and Danielle Teller each recorded

10, while Moriah Hover, Kristen Travis and Nicci Landdeck notched six

each. The coach also singled out freshman point guard Angela Jones’

five-point performance as her best of the year.

Unfortunately, the 5-1/2-0 Patriots took a nine-point lead into the

fourth quarter and Mount Si ran out of gas before they could close the gap.

The bigger challenge came last Friday night with yet another

away game, this time at the “friendly confines” of the Bellevue gym. The

number two-ranked Wolverines won it going away, outpointing the `Cats

19-6 in the first quarter and never looking back. Despite Mount Si’s

hustle, the team came out on the short end of a 64-32 blowout.

On this evening Raisio set the pace for her teammates, rolling in 12

points for almost one-third of the Wildcats’ total offense. Ratcliffe followed

with seven, Jones turned in another five- point performance, Landdeck hit

for three and Teller scored two. In response, Bellevue doubled up the

`Cats 20-10 in the third and never trailed. Kedzie Gunderson, Jill Bell

and Megan Osmer did most of the damage, scoring 34 points between them.

Bellevue’s victory put them at 5-1 and 3-0 in the Sky Division of

KingCo 3A, while the battered Wildcats fell to 2-4 and 0-3 in the Valley

Division, placing them firmly in fourth place.

Their never-ending road trip continued this week with away games

this past Monday at Enumclaw and Tuesday night at Garfield High School

in Seattle.

Then will come a well deserved Christmas and New Years’ break.

The team will take the opportunity to enjoy family and friends and reflect

on the last year of the 1990s. Then will come a time to review lessons

learned while preparing for a return to the hardwood in January.