Sea-King 3A Roundup: Sealth blows by Mount Si, earns berth at state

BELLEVUE — Back to business as usual.

With a cloud of controversy hovering above them, the Chief Sealth girls returned to their seemingly effortless basketball Tuesday, winning 71-28 win over Mount Si in a winner-to-state Sea-King 3A District tournament semifinal at Bellevue Community College.

The top-ranked Seahawks (24-0) will play No. 9 Issaquah in the district-championship game at 8 p.m. Saturday at BCC. Mount Si (18-7) plays Seattle Prep in a winner-to-state, loser-out game at 8:15 p.m. Thursday at BCC.

The last time Chief Sealth played, last Thursday, the game took place one day after The Seattle Times reported that head coach Ray Willis and his staff had recruited players for more than three years. And the Seahawks struggled for most of the night, eventually winning 67-55.

But on Tuesday, the 2005 state champions took a 7-0 lead after just 1:31 and won easily.

"We played great. We decided to play like a team again," said Chief Sealth junior Regina Rogers, who had 17 points. "We stepped up, everybody stepped up. We played as one."

Chief Sealth held Mount Si to just 10-of-49 shooting (21 percent) and didn't allow the Wildcats to reach double digits in any quarter. The Wildcats' leading scorer, freshman Madison Yakaboski, was held to four points — 11 below her 15.3 season average.

Mount Si's guards were continually pushed out well beyond the three-point arc and forced to shoot long jumpers. Nicole Remish and Catie Richards each made two three-pointers and scored 10 points apiece to lead the Wildcats.

"We pride ourselves on keeping people under 35, under 40 points," Willis said. "The other night, with Holy Names, our defense went south on us, with all the distractions or whatever."

Other game

The Eagles (20-4) forced 28 turnovers to run past No. 3 Bainbridge (21-3) and earn a spot in the state tournament.

Issaquah will face Chief Sealth in Saturday's 8 p.m. district-title game at BCC. Bainbridge takes on Holy Names in a winner-to-state, loser-out game at 4:45 p.m. Thursday at BCC.

"It feels great. It's a relief," Issaquah coach Kathy Gibson said. "To play in that loser-out game is a brutal game to play."

Melissa Richardson, the KingCo 3A player of the year, led Issaquah with 15 points, and Alexa Smith scored 14 on 6-of-7 shooting.

Freshman Brittany Gray led Bainbridge with 15 points.