Helping to cement their position in the KingCo standings and secure their place in the tournament that began this week, the Mercer Island boys basketball team earned two wins over league opponents Liberty and Mount Si.
The Islanders, who won 65-42 over the Patriots, earned the No. 3 seed going into the KingCo tournament, which started on Tuesday night, after Reporter deadline.
Last Thursday, the Mercer Island boys had another win, this time 67-53 over a Mount Si team coming down from a win over Bellevue.
On Thursday, hosting Mount Si in the last home game of the regular season, the Islanders started out strong, hoping to keep the Wildcats at bay, but faced a deficit of 31-27 going into the half. The team rallied in the third and fourth to pull away with the win.
“Last night’s win over Mount Si is a big confidence-booster for our guys going into the playoffs,” said head coach Gavin Cree. “It was probably our most complete game of the year. It wasn’t perfect; it was as close as we have been to putting 32 minutes together. We now know that if we focus for 32 minutes and give our maximum effort, we can beat anybody.”
Cree said that heading into the playoffs, the team needs to continue to focus on defense, taking care of the ball and reading where to deliver it during games.
“We have all sorts of advantages inside against every team we play,” said Cree. “Teams have to double and triple team our post players. We need to understand when and where to deliver the ball in order to counter the defense. We also need to focus on one game at a time.”
Kaj Sherman had 16 points, Quinn Sterling posted 15 and Parker Scott had 10 points in the win.
“We controlled the boards and took better care of the ball in the second half,” Cree said, citing that the team had just two turnovers in the last 16 minutes. “We also shot 74 percent from the free throw line and made most of our free throws down the stretch. That put them away.”
In the game against Liberty, the Islanders saw double digits on the scoreboard all four quarters, despite some interactions and physical play on the court. Several Liberty players had drawn three or more fouls by the second quarter, when Mercer Island had the 32-24 lead.
Junior Jeff Lindquist had a big night for Mercer Island, earning 18 points for the team, while both Sherman and Sterling had 14 points. Liberty junior Chandler Jenkins had 14 points for the Patriots, while senior teammate Austin Hedeen had six points, along with Farzam Shokri.
