The Mount Si High School girls basketball team rolls into the second half of their schedule on a strong note, after taking the Valley Cup on Saturday, Jan. 2. The Wildcat defense held Cedarcrest to just one basket the entire game, using a balanced offensive attack to easily roll over the Red Wolves, 62-19.
Hailey Eddings and Sarah McDonald both led Mount Si with ten points apiece.
“We lost our last game by one point, so we were pretty much determined to not let that happen again,” said Mount Si coach Megan Botulinski. “So we really stepped up at practice, working on that intense pressure.”
“We went out and we played tough,” said Wildcat junior Emily Ferree, who scored five points. “We brought the intensity throughout the whole game. None of us ever quit.”
Mount Si went right to work from the opening tip, scoring the first 12 points of the contest before the Red Wolves finally got on the board, with 1:15 left in the first period, on a pair of free throws. The Wildcats went into halftime up 24-7.
The Red Wolves scored their lone bucket of the game with 5:15 remaining in the third, and had ample opportunities to make a few more. But continued tough Mount Si defense, along with numerous missed chances, hurt Cedarcrest.
Ferree thinks things are coming together for her team on defense.
“We’re getting a lot better communicating, talking on defense and rotating to our right spots,” she said. “We’re getting used to playing with everybody as a team.”
With the win, the Wildcats head into the heart of the Kingco schedule at 5-5. In essence, this means a clean slate for the second half, and this prospect excites Botulinski.
“We have set ourselves up pretty nicely,” the coach said. “I can see us being competitive with anybody in our league. I have total faith that these girls can do anything that they put their minds to.”
Junior Jori Braun said fans should expect a lot more wins, “because we just want to keep it going.”
The Wildcats also fared well at last week’s Lakewood Christmas Classic.
On Wednesday, Dec. 30, they took second in the event after falling by one point to Nooksack Valley from Whatcom County. The Wildcats gave it their best in the 47-46 loss. Eddings led the way with 12 points while Braun added 11. But it was the play of Kassidy Maddux which impressed Botulinski. Maddux had eight points, seven rebounds and six steals.
“Kassidy was a huge spark plug,” Botulinski told the Valley Record by e-mail.
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t our night,” the coach added. “Our girls, though, never gave up… they competed the entire game, but our offense wasn’t there.”
To get to the title game, Mount Si made short work of host Lakewood on Tuesday, Dec. 29. All but one player in uniform scored points for the Wildcats in the 60-22 rout of the Cougars of the 2A Cascade League. Braun and Molly Sellers each scored 13 points to lead Mount Si, who used a 21-5 first quarter advantage to spark the efforts. Braun added six steals and Ferree, despite being the lone Wildcat not to score points, pitched in six rebounds to aid the efforts.
Eddings and Sellers made the all-tournament team.
