Season ends at districts for Islander boys | Prep basketball
Published 6:33 am Monday, February 23, 2015
Coming off a heartbreaking triple-overtime loss to Seattle Prep in the 3A Sea-King district quarterfinals, Mercer Island was looking for a little more magic in Friday’s lose-out game against Lakeside to keep its state tournament aspirations alive.
But behind 51 points from two of its backcourt players, Lakeside proved too much, beating the Islanders 68-54 in their consolation matchup Friday night at Bellevue College.
Isiah Brown had a game-high 31 points for the Lions (20-7, 10-6), while backcourt mate Kiki Boyle sprung for 20 points, knocking down six 3-point shots on the evening.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a guard as good as Isiah Brown, and I’ve been coaching, playing and watching high school basketball for almost 30 years,” Mercer Island coach Gavin Cree said. “I haven’t seen a guard as good as him, not in Washington. He’s special. And Boyle, we wanted guys other than (Daejon) Davis and Brown to beat us, and he beat us.”
Mercer Island led 17-10 in the opening period before Brown knocked down a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to four at the end of the first quarter. But in the second, the Islanders (17-9, 10-2) only managed to score five points while seeing Lakeside close the half on a 9-0 run to lead 32-22 at the break.
“They got one run out on us and were able to attack in transition when we weren’t set,” Cree said. “I just thought there were too many gaps for Brown and Davis that they were getting to in transition. It’s tough, we haven’t faced a team with two guys that draw so much attention.”
Lakeside went up by 17 in the third quarter with another 9-0 run, which included five points from Brown and a dunk from Daejon Davis. The Islanders were able to cut the deficit to ten before Boyle struck with his own personal 9-0 run, hitting three-straight 3-pointers to give the Lions a commanding 50-31 advantage with 1:37 to go in the third.
Mercer Island would get no closer than 11. Sam Nordale, Andrew Pickles and Nick Taylor each had 14 to lead the Islanders.
After the game, Cree praised his seniors for leading a young team to a season that was, in his eyes, one stop away from a top-four seed in the regional tournament.
“We lost a lot of pieces from last year, one Division I player and some other guys who really scored the ball for us,” Cree said. “We obviously could’ve won the other night. Tonight was tough, but we could’ve won against Seattle Prep. But this was a great season for a team that had a lot to replace.”
The Islanders graduate seniors Gabriel Boucaud, Jack Counihan, David Emanuels, Evan Shaddle and Nick Taylor.
