Mercer Island girls capture KingCo 3A crown, finish league play undefeated

Islanders win first league title since 2010

By Joseph Livarchik • February 1, 2017 2:18 am
Mercer Island’s Claire Mansfield (4) and Jackie Stenberg converge defensively on Lake Washington’s Lindsay Allan Tuesday at Mercer Island High School. The Islanders beat the Kangs 69-24 (Joe Livarchik/staff photo).
Mercer Island’s Claire Mansfield (4) and Jackie Stenberg converge defensively on Lake Washington’s Lindsay Allan Tuesday at Mercer Island High School. The Islanders beat the Kangs 69-24 (Joe Livarchik/staff photo).

The Mercer Island girls basketball team captured its first KingCo 3A championship since 2010 in dominant fashion, finishing conference play undefeated with a 69-24 win over Lake Washington in the league finale Tuesday night at Mercer Island High School.

Tuesday’s victory marked the 11th straight win for the Islanders (17-3, 14-0 in KingCo), who have yet to lose to a Washington-state opponent this season.

Though she didn’t verbalize it with her players, Mercer Island coach Gillian d’Hondt said one of the goals she had for her team this year was to maintain a perfect KingCo league record.

“We knew last year we only lost to Bellevue. It was kind of a given that we were out for them,” d’Hondt said. “We definitely knew with Redmond coming in, they were gonna be a strong team, too. It’s just beautiful that [this team] was able to hold it out. There were a couple games where we should’ve come out a little stronger, but that happens and we still fought through.”

Celebrating senior night, Mercer Island never trailed Tuesday, holding the Kangs (2-18, 1-13) to seven first-half points. Senior post player Anna Luce led the way, scoring a game-high 27 points while grabbing eight rebounds. Senior point guard Kailee Yan added 21 points, finding her stroke from deep and knocking down five of her six 3-point shot attempts.

“I just really wanted to come out here and play my absolute best,” Yan said. “I’ve been on the team for four years and it’s been a really great journey. I’ve had a lot of friends on the team, my teammates did a really good job tonight. I just really wanted to come out here and end on a really high note.”

Jennifer Estes led Lake Washington with 11 points. The Kangs were already eliminated from postseason competition heading into Tuesday’s finale, which may have had an effect on team members. Lake Washington coach Regi Raban said he didn’t see the usual fight from his players that he had previously seen throughout the season.

“We’ve only won two games [this season] but they still played hard all the time,” Raban said. “Today, we didn’t get that until the last few minutes of the game.”

Mercer Island will begin KingCo 3A tournament competition at 7 p.m. Saturday at Mercer Island High School. The Islanders will host the winner of Friday’s Juanita-Interlake loser-out matchup.