Girls Basketball Falls to Lake Washington

had a bad shooting night as the Lady Islanders slumped to their , this time to the Lake Washington Kangaroos, 50-58.

Two Kangs players scored the bulk of the points; Hunter Hopkins with 24 points and Kat Whitfield with 13 for Lake Washington (8-3, 4-2 KingCo 3A/2A).

“We struggled early in the season, but we’ve really come together since then,” said Hopkins. “We look like a completely different team.”

Senior Islander point guard Hailey Gullstad had 18 points, Jae Shin had 15, and Kris Brackmann had 13 for Mercer Island (7-7, 3-4). But those three were essentially the Islanders entire offense, with only Sarah Taylor and Caroline Carfi adding a bucket a piece. No other Mercer Island player managed to score.

"We can't rely on 3 people to do all the shooting and scoring," lamented Coach Jamie Prescott after the disappointing loss.

While it was not pretty, the Islanders were in the game up until the final quarter. The Islanders were up 18-17 at the half, and only down 4 at the top of the 4th quarter, 33-29. But the all-too-familiar 4th-quarter demise crept in.

"We knew who was going to score and how they were going ot score, but we failed to get the defensive job done," Coach Prescott said. "I thought we had their number."

After starting out with a 1-3 record, the Kangs have evolved into an offensive powerhouse now at 9-3, beginning with a victory over the South Salem Saxons in the championship game of the Winter Classic back in December.

“The trip down to Oregon was a great bonding experience for us. Winning the South Salem Winter Classic really pulled us together,” said LW coach Corey Shepard. “We went from 3-3 to 6-3 over a weekend and that catapulted us here to eight in a row. I told the girls, that if the successful tournament doesn’t carry over then it was all for nothing."

The Islanders head to Bellevue for their next game against Sammamish (4-9, 0-7) next Wednesday.