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Sports

Lady Islanders advance to districts with win over Bellevue

The Mercer Island High School girls basketball team locked up a spot in the Sea-King dsitrict playoffs with a 55-40 win over Bellevue on Saturday night.

Jae Shin scored 21 points and the Mercer Island girls basketball team used a dominating second-half effort to lock up a spot in the Sea-King district playoffs, downing Bellevue 55-40 in a loser-out  on Saturday night at Mercer Island High School.

The two teams were tied at halftime before Mercer Island's offense came alive in the second half, ripping off a 26-8 run to put the game away.

"We have a saying of 'no regrets'," Islander point guard Hailey Gullstad, who scored 14 points, said. "Coach [Jamie Prescott] just wrote it on the board [at halftime] and we realized that we only had 16 minutes left if we lost, so we just had to come out and get the win."

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While Mercer Island was putting it together offensively, Bellevue's offense fell apart in the second half. The Wolverines made just four field goals in the entire second half, missing 12 of 13 shots at one point.

"We just couldn't make any shots," Bellevue head coach Ron Tinin said of the final two quarters. "They hit everything, we didn't make anything." 

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The game took on a physical tone from the start, with both teams quickly getting into foul trouble. Bellevue seemed to use the tone to their advantage in the first half, starting the game on a 6-0 run and rattling the Islanders out of their usual long-range shooting game.

"I think we were so worried about what they were trying to do, that we didn't do what we do," Prescott said of her teams slow start. "We've been talking a lot about counters to different defenses and I think they were spending so much time worrying about what the other team was running that we didn't run what we run."

Once the Islanders got into a rhythm, the game changed quickly. Shin was fouled on a three-point attempt early in the third quarter and hit all three throws, sparking a quick 10-2 run, capped by a three from Shin.

"Jae has never had a red light or a yellow light," Prescott said of Shin's aggressive shooting nature.

Mercer Island pushed its lead to 18 early in the fourth quarter and Bellevue never got closer than 13 points the rest of the way.

The win guarantees the Islanders a spot in the Sea-King district playoffs, which start next week. Mercer Island will play Mount Si on Tuesday at 4:45 pm, with the winner advancing to the KingCo 3A/2A championship game.

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