MI girls knockout Interlake in first round of KingCo 3A tourney

The Mercer Island girls, coming off a three game winning streak, won the tip in the first round, loser-out game versus the Interlake Saints, and they never looked back. Mercer Island started a little shaky trading possessions with the Saints, but soon found their rhythm leading the saints 12-5 at the end of the first quarter, and extending that lead to 25-15 by the half.

The Saints pulled to within five by the end of the third quarter putting up 16 points in the period, including six from junior, Angel Le. But the Islander girls responded in the fourth quarter. Senior, Claire Mansfield with a steal and layup and junior, Angelina Barokas with back to back threes put the game out of reach. The Saints resorted to intentional fouling sending Mansfield and Barokas to the line once and sophomore Grace Shaddle to the line three times.

This was the third time the Islanders faced off against the Saints this season. The Islanders struggled early in the season due to injuries, they lost to the Saints in the December 13th meeting 36-44 and Mercer Island came out on top in the January 19th contest 50-44.

Shaddle led the Islanders with a game-high 23 points, followed by Barokas with 18, including five three-point field goals.

Final score Mercer Island 55, Interlake Saints 44.

Mercer Island: Grace Shaddle 23, Angelina Barokas 18, Annabelle Gersch 7, Claire Mansfield 5, Sarah Gest 1, Joy Francke 1

Interlake: Angel Le 10, Gretchen Dayment 8, Virginia Mehlhoff 7, Kylie Malyon 6, Jordan Hogland 4, Mia Robertson 4

The Islanders, (6-9 conference, 9-12 overall) will now face Redmond (13-1 conference, 19-1 overall) at Redmond high school, Saturday, February 3rd at 7PM in the next round of the KingCo 3A tournament. The winner of the Mercer Island-Redmond match up will face the winner of the Juanita-Bellevue game also scheduled for February 3rd. The KingCo 3A tournament championship will take place at Newport high school, February 7th.