After heading east for the first weekend of the 3A state tournament last Wednesday, to beat the weather, the Mercer Island boys basketball team split their games, but the season ended with a 60-44 loss to Kamiakin last Saturday.

“Our kids fought hard,” said head coach Gavin Cree. “We were well prepared and gave it everything we had. We just kind of ran into a buzzsaw on Saturday with the hot shooting. The only frustration is that our team proved capable of beating any team in the state. On that day, Kamiakin was better, and that’s all it takes sometimes.”

The team, which left the SeaKing district tournament the week prior as the No. 5 seed, headed to the first weekend of state at Spokane Falls Community College to take on some of the best teams from Eastern Washington. The Islanders needed three straight wins to earn a trip to the state quarterfinals in Tacoma.
On Friday night, the Islanders beat Southridge 46-31 in their first match of the tournament.

Southridge kept pace with Mercer Island through the first quarter, ending with a 6-6 tie, before the Islanders put on the gas and took it away. The first half ended with a 19-15 score for Mercer Island at Spokane Falls Community College.
The third quarter continued the trend with the Islanders putting up 17 points to Southridge’s nine, and Mercer Island held off a late comeback attempt by Southridge in the fourth, as they scored 11 to the Islanders’ 10.

“We played great defense against Southridge,” said Cree. “We held their leading scorer, Matt Mendenhall, to two points through three quarters. He ended up scoring seven points in the fourth quarter to reach nine total, but that was a great defensive effort on the part of our team.”

Sam Cohn put up 16 for Mercer Island during the win, while Derek Newhof had 15 points. Quinn Sterling had seven and Kaj Sherman added four overall.

The next afternoon, the team took on Kamiakin, a top-ranked team in the state. The match was close in the beginning, with a 13-12 score after the first eight minutes. The Braves then took it away, going 17-7 in the second to earn a solid lead at halftime. A strong third quarter for the Islanders closed the gap to a 38-32 match, but Kamiakin took away the Islanders’ hopes of making the state quarterfinals in the fourth quarter with a 22-point run.

Cree said the whole weekend, the Islanders never hit their offensive stride, which made it hard to get the points needed to win.

“All the changes in our lineup over the course of the season (due to injuries) kind of hurt our offensive chemistry,” said the coach. “It’s hard to win games against great teams when you are scoring in the 40s. With that said, Kamiakin beat us with three-point shooting. They tied a state tournament record with 12 three-point shots made in the game (12-17 total). That’s tough to compete with.”

Cree said the game was a slow-paced match, which made it even harder to get things going on the offensive side, and easier for the Braves to use those three-point skills to their full advantage.

“We had their lead cut to three points on the last defensive possession of the third quarter, and they hit a back-breaking three with two seconds left in the quarter to go up six. They then made three pointers on the first two possessions of the fourth to take a 12-point lead. That was too much to come back from,” said Cree.

In their last game as Islanders, Newhof had nine points, while Sterling put up eight, Sherman had nine and Ben Emanuels had two. Joe Rasmussen also had nine for the team, with Cohn adding eight, Sean Hughes five and Parker Scott three.
It was the team’s first trip to state since the 2008 season. Even though the team made state, it wasn’t an easy trip there, as several members of the team sat on the bench for weeks at a time due to injuries.

“We dealt with so much adversity this year with all the injuries,” Cree said. Sterling and Sherman were both out for eight weeks, while Brian Miller ended his season early in the playoff run and missed playing in state because of those injuries.
“Our whole roster stepped up and filled the void admirably all season long,” said the coach. “I’m proud of every single player on our team for believing in themselves, their teammates and the system. I told our guys to draw upon this experience over the course of their lives. When the chips are down and everything seems to go against you, your confidence, positive attitude and work ethic can help you accomplish anything.”

The team finished the season with a 21-6 record.