The Mount Si Wildcat girls’ basketball team returned from the holiday break in style, as last Wednesday they easily took care of the Mercer Island Islanders.
Behind a strong 22-point effort from freshman Madison Yakaboski, the Wildcats rolled away to an 81-54 win. Senior Tara Eddings added a double-double; a 10 point and 10 rebound effort to help the cause. Three-point shooting was one of many keys to victory.
“Three-pointers, left and right, that was amazing. I think we had better shooting, from the three than the foul line,” said Wildcat senior reserve Jessica Marley, who added a respectable four points and four rebounds to the cause.
Mount Si went 10-16 from outside the arc, while they only went 7-17 from the line. Leading that outside shooting clinic were Yakaboski and fellow freshman Caitie Richards, who each went 5-7 from outside the three-point range. Richards hit three consecutive threes in the third quarter, allowing the Wildcats to pull away.
Also key were team play and preparation. Sophomore post Alisha Larion was pleased with the entire team effort.
“It was really cool how people who don’t usually get to play got a lot of playing time. I like that, and it was really a team win,” Larion said.
Mount Si coach Dirk Hansen felt that the Ellensburg tournament helped his team in this contest.
“We worked hard over winter break,” he said. “We had the Ellensburg tournament and I thought we played pretty well over there, and we’ve had a couple good practices and we’re ready for Mercer Island tonight. They were off on vacation over the holidays, and so Jamie [Prescott, the MI coach] will get them playing good here. They just haven’t had very many practices coming off their break … but they’ll improve as the year goes on and we expect a tough battle from them when we go up to their gym.”
About the only thing that went wrong for the Wildcats was losing Chelsie Eddings to an ankle injury three minutes into the game. After a brief delay, the senior was helped off the court and was then attended to on the sidelines by trainers. Eddings did not return.
Chelsie Eddings did not play Friday as the Wildcats traveled to Bellevue to face the Wolverines. But Yakaboski got the job done again and Mount Si beat Bellevue for the second straight time after not having defeated the Wolverines at all under Hansen.
Yakaboski scored 19 as Mount Si held off Bellevue 59-52. Richards had a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds to assist the cause.
A key to victory was going to be strong interior play and the Wildcats delivered, matching the Wolverines rebound-for-rebound in a furious battle on the boards. While Bellevue outrebounded Mount Si, it was only by just one, 49-48, and that extra one came defensively. The Wildcats and Wolverines each had 22 offensive rebounds. Leading the effort aside from Richards were Symone Shaw with 12 boards and Tara Eddings with 10.
Nicole Remish chipped in 13 points to pace the Mount Si efforts.
Marley knows what will make the Wildcats successful down the stretch: defense. “Well, I hope that we can just work on our defense and keep that good, because that’s what’s going to win our games,” the senior said.
Another tough week looms for Mount Si. The Wildcats are at Newport on Wednesday in a battle for second place in Kingco 3A; then Mount Si is at first-place Issaquah on Friday in a much anticipated game considering how close the previous meeting was. Tip times for both contests are at 7:30 p.m.
