The Mount Si Wildcat girls’ basketball team broke a two-game losing streak last Wednesday night at home and tuned up for the final road trip of the regular season with a big win over the Liberty Patriots.

Madison Yakaboski picked up a double-double of 18 points and 12 rebounds and Symone Shaw added a healthy nine-point, 10-rebound effort to the cause as Mount Si throttled Liberty 57-37 in a very physical contest.

Shaw credited her team’s defense: “The team effort was good. Our defense really stepped up. I think that’s what won us the game,” she said.

The Wildcats stole the ball 22 times and blocked six shots. But fouls were also a big story; a total of 41 were called by referees on the two teams combined – that’s the highest number of combined fouls called by officials during a Mount Si girls game this year – and Wildcat coach Dirk Hansen said that is something his team needs to fix.

“We need to continue to do a better job of adjusting to officiating because every crew is different, but we’re young and these are all things that we’ll continue to work on and improve on,” Hansen said.

Nicole Remish added 10 points for Mount Si, and Saundrea Polk scored 12 points for Liberty, half of which came on six for seven shooting at the foul line. Caitie Richards scored eight points, collected eight rebounds and had six assists to pace the Wildcats.

Six of nine Mount Si girls who played scored points, and balance continues to be a theme with the offense.

“We’re just moving the ball on offense. We’re doing a better job of moving and when you’re moving on offense, the ball ends up in all sorts of different people’s hands,” Hansen said.

The Wildcats rolled into Sammamish on Friday, took a big first-half lead and disposed of the Totems in easy fashion. Remish scored 22 points and added seven rebounds as Mount Si won 56-32.

Shaw continues to make noise in her supporting role on the team. The sophomore scored 10 points to pace the Mount Si effort. Defense was key to the victory, as Mount Si stole the ball from the Totems 30 times in the contest.

Richards scored seven points and added nine rebounds and six assists to the effort for the Wildcats.

As the regular season winds down, the Mount Si girls know they must continue to deliver if they want 10 league wins, a very attainable goal with who’s left in the schedule. Senior Kali Walker says they’ll get it done.

“I think we always bring 110 percent to every game, and so we’re just going to give it our all and hopefully it’ll pay off,” Walker said.

The Wildcats are at Mercer Island on Friday night, then the team hosts Bellevue next Wednesday and Newport next Thursday. All games will tip at 7:30 p.m., and the Newport game will be Mount Sis’ senior Night, as the girls’ program honors the contributions of the Eddings twins (Tara and Chelsie), Remish, Walker and Jessica Marley, who are the team’s five seniors.