Teams in the Mercer Island girls basketball program competed at various Martin Luther King tournaments around the Puget Sound.

The Mercer Island eighth grade team competed at the Snohomish MLK tournament, playing at Glacier Peak High School. The team finished second overall.

On Saturday, Jan. 19 the team lost their opening game to Puyallup, and lost the second game to Bellevue in a last minute point change. On Sunday the team entered bracket play as the No. 7 seed, but beat the No. 1 seed Snohomish in the first round. That win propelled the team to once again take on Bellevue, and Mercer Island was able to hold on to the win, despite trailing for most of the match.

The team took on Puyallup in a rematch of Saturday’s game for the tournament finals. Mercer Island was dominate for most of the game, but Puyallup hit a three-point hot streak and pulled away to earn the title by one point.

The team includes: Claire Mansfield, Anna Luce, Josie Blakeslee, Macy Mounger, Brooke Fitzwilson, Aolani Claderon, Gracie Cannon, Kalie Yan, Maeve Aikins and Jessie Stenberg. The team is coached by Darnell Taylor, Ross Fernely and Kris Brackmann.

The Mercer Island fourth grade select team also played that weekend, participating in the Mt. Si Wildcat Classic. The team won it’s age group, in it’s first tournament as a team, competing against other fourth grade and fifth grade teams.

The Mercer Island team beat Interlake, Tahoma, Newport and Cedarcrest. With the perfect record, the team advanced to the finals to play Newport, which Mercer Island won 36-8 in the team’s third game of the day.

The team includes: Annabelle Gersch, Charlise Barokas, Molly Moffitt, Giselle Johnson, Renee White, Niteeka Narayan and Audrey Nordstrom. The team is coached by Leo Asuan.