Long passes and fast steals with even faster footwork dominate the Mercer Island boy’s basketball games. Against Interlake it worked as the Islanders powered past the Saints, beating the Bellevue team by 20 points. The final score was 68-48.

Mercer Island exploded out of the gate, putting up 17 points to the Saints’ four in first quarter as the Islanders knocked down shots and made numerous steals to gain the upper hand early on. Against the smaller Interlake team the Islanders used well established passing lanes down the court to transfer those early game steals into points, which came in handy later in the game as Interlake found ways to combat the Islanders game. But Mercer Island successfully added up free throw points to end the half with a 37-22 lead.

In the third quarter the Saint’s made 12 point, trying to close the gap in the score, but let the taller Islanders under the basket for rebounds which ensured Mercer Island held on to their lead. Despite each team scoring 14 points in the final eight minutes, Interlake could not catch the Islander’s early game lead.

The Islanders are now 3-2 this season with a 2-0 league record.

In the game against the Saints, nine members of the Mercer Island team had two or more points, with Kaj Sherman putting up 14, Quinn Sterling nabbing 13 of the overall total and with Brian Miller placing nine on the board. Eric Stefanchick had eight points, both Sean Hughes and Gabe Fruchter had six points, Ben Emanuels and Jeff Lindquist earned five points, while Jeremy Hagen had two overall.

So far this season, Sterling and Sherman are two of the league’s top scorers, earning 14.2 points a game for Sterling and 12.4 for Sherman.

With the school on break for the holidays the boys team will take a break until the day after Christmas, playing at Cathedral City on Dec. 26. Their next home game will be against Bellevue on Friday, Dec. 8, 2010.