The Mercer Island Islanders girls basketball team nearly pulled off the upset of the century against the undefeated Bellevue Wolverines girls basketball squad in the Class 3A KingCo championship game on Feb. 11 at Newport High School in Factoria.

Mercer Island bolted out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter of play and led Bellevue 43-42 after three quarters of action. Bellevue outscored Mercer Island 23-12 in the fourth quarter en route to a comeback 65-55 win. The Wolverines improved their overall record to 22-0 with the win. Mercer Island dropped to 17-4 with the loss.

Mercer Island took a 10-0 lead after senior forward Taylor Krause knocked down a 3-pointer with 3:41 left in the first quarter. It was the first time  the Wolverines had trailed by double digits this season. Bellevue head coach Leah Krautter said it was good for her squad to experience adversity in a pressure situation.

“You never want to be down 10 but at the same time we’re going to grow from that experience. It made us work hard and it made us actually have to play under pressure. Mercer Island is a good team and they came out hard. It is tough to beat a team three times in a season,” Krautter said. “The girls fought hard. In the second half we just focused on playing together and playing as a team.”

The Wolverines’ trio of Shelby Cansler, Tatiana Streun and Anna Wilson came up with big plays against Mercer Island. Cansler had 26 points, Streun finished with 16 points and Wilson added 12 points. Despite the multitude of points scored by the Bellevue starters, Streun credited her team’s bench players for turning the game around.

“We really needed the energy from our bench. That is what we vibe off of and get all of our energy from. Once that started to pick up that is when we went on our run,” Streun said.

Mercer Island head coach Gillian d’Hondt was proud of her team’s performance despite the loss against one of the top powerhouses in the nation.

“We executed what we needed to do. We left it all on the floor. I feel like we are really jelling and coming together right now,” d’hondt said. “There weren’t any dropped heads (after the game). I think they were still kind of in shock that we almost had the upset of the nation. I’m really proud of how we played tonight.”

Mercer Island forward Anna Luce had a team-high 18 points and guard Jessica Blakeslee added 15 points as well.