The Mercer Island boys basketball team punched their ticket to the KingCo championship game on Thursday, Feb. 7 after beating Liberty on Tuesday.

The Islanders will face Bellevue on Thursday in a 6:30 p.m. game at Bellevue College.

Against Liberty on Tuesday, Mercer Island won 56-25.

The Islanders held a commanding first quarter lead of 14-2, holding the Patriots from scoring until late in the quarter. The second set followed suit, with Mercer Island scoring 19 points to Liberty’s seven.

After halftime, Liberty scored a game high of 13 points in the third quarter, but allowed 18 by the Islanders. The final minutes wrapped with the Islanders hitting five points while Liberty scored three.

Espen Platou had a game high of 15 points, while Kaleb Warner scored 12 points and Nick Nordale scored 10 overall. Joe Rasmussen had eight points in the game and Jake Shaddle scored five points. Jake Stenberg added three to the team’s total, while Daniel Sims had two points and Max Tilden scored one point.

The title game on Thursday will determine the Islanders seeding going into the SeaKing district tournament next week. With a win the team enters the tournament as the No. 1 seed, earning a first round bye, playing their first game against the winner of the Metro 7 vs. Metro 5 teams on Tuesday, Feb. 12. A loss on Thursday night would make Mercer Island the No. 2 KingCo team, forcing a game on Saturday, Feb. 9 against the No. 8 Metro team.