Rasmussen's 20 Points Not Enough To Get By Chapel Hill

Despite Jr. forward Joe Rasmussen's 20 points in the paint, the Islanders fell to Chapel Hill 61-59 thanks to a three pointer by Sr. Forward Jordan Jacks with 10 seconds left. Jacks led all scorers with 34 points.

"Defensively, we weren't good enough," Head Coach Gavin Cree said. "We weren't good enough on the boards. We out rebounded them by two, 25-23, but we've got to get that margin up to 10 or 12. That's our goal, and we didn't reach that goal. Defensively, we allowed Jacks to have 34 points. That's unacceptable. We didn't play good enough team defense and the coaches will take responsibility for that."

Despite the loss, Cree was extremely pleased with the performacne of Sr. guard Sean Hughes. Hughes had 14 assists on the day, 4 shy of the school record.

The game featured two teams with contrasting styles. Mercer Island's slow, deliberate half court offense against the up tempo running attack of the Panthers.

The first quarter was evenly played, with the Islanders leading 17-14 at the quarter's end. In the second quarter, Chapel Hill outscored Mercer Island 8-4 before Coach Cree called a time out with 5:28 to play in the half. After the time out, the Islanders regathered themselves by outscoring the Panthers 12-6 to finish the first half in the lead 33-28.

The second half featured a nip and tuck battle between both teams with Mercer Island having a 49-46 lead at the end of the third quarter. However, with 42 seconds left and Chapel Hill with a 58-57 lead, Rasmussen tried to score on the inside and was fouled. He calmly sank both free throws to give the Islanders a 1 point lead. However, with 10 seconds left, Jordan Jacks came through for the Panthers when he hit a three ponter from the top of the key to give Chapel Hill a 61-59 lead.

The Islanders tried to tie the game with Sean Hughes' baseline jumper with 2 seconds left. The shot was no good, but the ball was knocked out of bounds by Chapel Hill, giving the Islanders another chance. The ball was inbounded to Brian Miller, who was fouled as the buzzer sounded, giving Mercer Island a chance to tie the game from the free throw line. However, Miller missed the first free throw. He tried to bang the ball off the rim on his second attempt, hoping for a tip in, but to no avail as Chapel Hill came away with the 61-59 victory.

"It went down to the wire," Chapel Hill Head Coach Lee Wilson said. "Mercer Island, we didn't know what to expect. They came all the way across the country. We didn't know their background. We knew they had good size. They were tough, really big. We knew we were going to have a hard time guarding them in the post, which we did. I thought our quickness would be an advantage to us and their size would be an advantage to them. It was a hard fought game. It was a tough game."

In addition to Rasmussen's 20 points to lead the Islanders, Brian Miller scored 10 points. Sean Hughes scored 8 points to go along with his 14 assists. Kaleb Warner and Nick Nordale each had 6 points. Karsten Sherman chipped in 4.  Justin Altaras had 3 points, and Sam Cohn rounded out the scoring with 2 points.  

For the Panthers, in addition to Jordan Jacks' 34 points to lead all scorers, Devon Moore scored 17. Kyle Edwards chipped in 5 points. Jarmarious Turner scored 4 and Jalen Langston rounded out the scoring with one free throw.

The Islanders will take the floor tomorrow at 7:35 am PST against Providence Christian Academy. The Stars lost their first round game to Central Gwinnett.