The Mount Si Wildcat girls’ basketball team solidified its position in the KingCo Conference and got to .500 on the season, but it wasn’t easy. The Wildcats held off a fierce challenge from Sammamish before defeating the Totems 51-43 before a crowd Friday in 3A action at Mount Si High School.

“We definitely had to earn it. We knew we were going to have to. [Sammamish coach Lorinda] Flikkema always has her girls well coached and ready to go – and Janelle Potter, she’s a Division I player, easily,” said Mount Si coach Dirk Hansen. “We had a hard time stopping her and we didn’t expect [Jami] Lewis to step up like she did and get so many shots for Sammamish.”

Lewis led Sammamish’s scoring effort with 15 points, and Potter helped out with 12 for the Totems.

But Nicci Landdeck was the story for Mount Si. She netted 20 to lead all scorers, and helped out in a lot of other ways as well.

The game opened very tight, with Rachel Travis’ three-pointer helping get Mount Si the lead after one quarter, 9-8.

No fouls were called against Mount Si in the first quarter at all; in fact, it took until 2:38 remaining in the first half before Mount Si was charged with one when Lizzie Finnegan fouled a Sammamish ball handler as she was going up the court.

This didn’t please the Sammamish side, as the Totems ended up with seven fouls to Mount Si’s two in the first half.

Scoringwise, the theme was much the same in the second quarter. Mount Si went out on a 10-2 run, but Sammamish answered and made it close going into the halftime break.

Mount Si widened its lead to as many as eight to open the third, but the Totems went on an 11-4 run that saw them take the lead briefly.

But Angela Jones came through and scored, which kept the ‘Cats in the lead going to the fourth quarter, where they were able to keep the Totems at bay.

“Our girls held off, and we did what it took to win, so I’m proud of them,” said Landdeck.

Kristen Travis, Rachel Travis, Finnegan and Jones all finished with six points each for the Wildcats. Hansen blamed turnovers and lack of rhythm for allowing the Totems to stay in the game, and he vowed changes before next week.

“Our problem tonight, our biggest problem was us,” he said. “We had a hard time with turnovers tonight, and we had a hard time with getting a rhythm. I had a hard time getting a rhythm with my rotation tonight and I think it had an effect on the girls.”

Next week opens with a road game at Liberty, which Hansen said is a “very good team. Jamie Corwin, a Division I player, and Hillary Tanneberg [are] two very solid players. Liberty played Bellevue a lot tougher than we did, so we got our hands full, no question. And we’ve struggled to win at Liberty. We’ve beaten them once since I’ve been here and nothing would be sweeter than to go up and beat Liberty at Liberty.”

After that road game, the Wildcats return home to face Newport next Friday.