Above and beyond the UW Huskies, a strong contingent of
Washingtonians engaged in friendly sporting competition in Southern
California last week.
The participants included the women’s basketball team
from Cedarcrest _ which took part in a holiday tournament in Costa Mesa _
and the Mount Si men, who were among 24 teams competing in San
Diego’s annual Surf n’ Slam tourney. For both squads it was a unique opportunity,
a trip to the sunnier climes, where the skies are uniformly blue and
people actually lounge around in beachwear in late December.
Unfortunately, when all was said and done, teams from Seattle and
Kentucky laid the mighty Wildcats low.
On Monday morning, Dec. 27, Mount Si ran into their first real
street fight of the season when they squared off against Analy High School
of Sebastopol, Calif. The `Cats quickly found themselves in an
uncharacteristic position: trailing.
The Tigers from Sonoma County opened up a 10-point lead in the
first quarter and maintained their advantage throughout most of the game.
Finally, with 18 seconds left in regulation play, senior Jason Arriaga put
one up that tied the contest at 51-51. Junior Isaiah Cormier iced the game
by scoring right at the end of overtime, giving Mount Si the 61-60 victory.
On the plus side, Arriaga finished with 23 points, eight rebounds and
five assists, while Cormier turned in 18 points. Senior forward Chris
Kaplan rang up 10 points, 10 rebounds and five blocked shots. Conversely, for
the first time this season the team as a whole shot less than 50 percent
from the floor, hitting 23 of 51 for a .451. Their free throw shooting _ 11 for
23 for .478 _ was also sub-par.
Mount Si Coach Garrick Phillips noted both the start time of the
game and his team’s shooting prowess _ or lack thereof _ in comments Monday.
“It was an 8:30 a.m. game, and we played like it was early morning,”
he commented. “It was a pretty sluggish game, pretty ugly both ways.
We picked it up enough in the second half and put it into overtime.”
Unfortunately, the following day the wheels came off and the
Wildcats went down to defeat for the first time this season, dropping a 46-32
match with 1A King’s High School of Seattle. The Knights, coming off a
54-42 opening round victory over Corbett, Ore., dominated the
boards and out-defended the `Cats, holding the Mount Si squad to
single-digit scoring in all four quarters.
The Wildcats scored a grand total of nine, eight, nine and six
points through the four frames, went into the half trailing by six, and were never
a serious threat to the sixth-ranked Knights. Cormier led the scoring
_ what there was _ with seven points, while Arriaga rolled five and
Marc Dahm recorded seven.
The low-scoring comeuppance was devastating to the Mount Si
squad. However, they didn’t have much time to reflect on the turn of events,
as Thursday they returned to the hardwood to face Oldham County of
Kentucky in the tourney’s consolation game.
At least this one was closer, but again, poor shooting and a stingy
opposing defense played a big role in determining the game’s
outcome. Oldham finished the half on the positive side of a 32-23 score, and
while the `Cats tied it late in the fourth, they weren’t able to hold on and claim
the victory. The Kentucky team eventually won, 49-43.
“Against King’s we only scored 32 points, which is about 40 points
under our average,” said Phillips. “Part of that was due to poor shooting
on our part, and part was good defense on their part. They played a
good game, very physical, and we weren’t able to adjust.
“Oldham County was a good team. We ended up losing that one by
six, but played considerably better.
“In all three games we probably had chances to win, but there
were things we struggled with,” the coach added. “We did not shoot the ball
well, and some teams just played outstanding defense.”
Tuesday night the 8-2 `Cats resumed KingCo 3A play,
hosting Interlake. In advance, Phillips said he figured the Saints would be
thoroughly hyped and ready for the game, particularly in the face of the
Wildcats’ recent struggles.
“They’re definitely going to be up for us,” he commented. “It should
be an entertaining game. We’re just going to continue to do what we’ve
been doing all year: try to improve on defense and concentrate on shot
selection.”
Friday night the Wildcat men will travel down-Valley to square
off against rival Cedarcrest. Start time for the varsity contest is 7:30 p.m.
