SNOQUALMIE – A fourth quarter defensive charge by the Issaquah Eagles pushed the team past Valley Division rival Mount Si High School in a 49-43 win in girls’ basketball action last week.
The loss was the second straight for the home team Mount Si, that lost the championship game of the Cactus Jam holiday tournament in Chandler, Arizona over winter break late last month. The loss to the Eagles is expected to keep the Wildcats out of the top 10 in the state’s 3A basketball rankings.
Coach Kathy Gibson, a former Mount Si coach, praised her guard Lauren Dascenzo, who led the team with 15 points.
“She’s a good athlete and a competitor, and when [Mount Si Coach Dirk] Hansen was telling her that she couldn’t defend [the Wildcats’ junior guard Rachel] Travis, that got her going a little bit,” said Gibson.
Forward Danielle Bue added 12 points for the Eagles, while Travis led Mount Si with 15 points, and senior post Karin Brevick added 10 points to pace the Wildcats.
The loss was Hansen’s first game back for the Wildcats since a family emergency called him away from the team following Mount Si’s opening game at the Cactus Jam tournament.
The Wildcats led 28-26 at the halftime break, and it appeared that with Mount Si matching Issaquah defensively, the team would finally solve a riddle that had been stumping them for years: how to beat the Eagles.
Issaquah’s defense, though, had other ideas.
First, they held the Wildcats’ offense to just five points in the third quarter, then turned it up in the fourth, forcing several key turnovers which propelled the Eagles to the victory.
The Eagles, with their win, moved to 4-0 in Kingco 3A, first in the Valley Division, 7-4 overall. Mount Si fell to 3-1 in Kingco 3A, one game back of the Eagles in second in the division.
At the season’s halfway mark, the Wildcats’ players and coaches said there are a couple items that need to be improved to ensure a solid second half of the season, but that no major changes are slated.
“Our inside game is coming around, but we still need to improve in that area we need our inside players to finish – do a little bit better job of finishing around the basket and we just need our perimeter players to continue to do what they do,” said Hansen.
Senior guard Landa Pastrana concurs.
“We’re just going to keep playing our game, and keep up our intensity,” she said.
The schedule this week though was not expected to be easy for the Wildcats, with games against Valley rival Cedarcrest, and a tough Skyline team who is second in the Sky Division. The tough week is capped off on Friday, with a game against the best team in the conference, the Bellevue Wolverines. Game time at Mount Si is 7:30 p.m.
