Girls battle blowout streak on coach’s home turf Top teams make for tough string

The Mount Si High School girls basketball team expected a tough challenge last week as they faced off with three of north Idaho’s top high school teams.

In the end, those games proved to be even more difficult than expected.

Mount Si fell by an average of nearly 29 points a game against the three teams — Lewiston, Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene’s Lake City — in three games played in the Coeur d’Alene Holiday Express Invitational tournament at North Idaho College.

Last Monday, Dec. 29, the Wildcats fell to the Lewiston Bengals, 75-48; on Tuesday, Dec. 30, they fell to the Trojans from Post Falls, 65-43; and on Wednesday, Dec. 31, Mount Si was defeated by the Timberwolves of Lake City, 78-31.

Caitie Richards led the Wildcats with 11 points against Lewiston, then followed up with a solid 15-point effort against Post Falls. Aubrey Larion led the way for Mount Si against Lake City with seven points.

Mount Si struggled offensively throughout the tournament; the Wildcats were held to under 30 percent shooting from the floor in all three games. Another factor hurting Mount Si offensively was that key scoring threat Karly Thompson, who has been battling injuries much of the season, didn’t score a point during the entire tournament, and was limited to seven shot attempts and one free throw in three games combined.

This tournament was on coach Dirk Hansen’s calendar since the start of the season. The three opponents the Wildcats faced were rivals of Hansen’s high school alma mater, Coeur d’Alene High.

After returning from northern Idaho, the Wildcats traveled on Friday, Jan. 2, to Inglemoor High School in Kenmore to face the Vikings. For the fourth straight game, Mount Si struggled from the floor, but they found themselves in a much closer contest than the previous three. The Wildcats had to rally late to make it that way, as they fell 42-41 to the Vikings.

The game was a makeup from a match-up postponed before the holidays due to the snow.

Richards and Jordyn Wilson each had nine points to lead Mount Si, while Hailey Eddings had a strong game with eight points.

“It felt really good to finally come back out,” Eddings said. “I was having a hard time, but we’re finally working together more as a team now, and [coach] Hansen’s mixing things up. We’re trying different subbing patterns, and I think it’s working really well.”

The sophomore added that the team will need to work on rebounding as it comes out of this week.

“We’re not a rebounding team, but we need to work as hard as we can to be a rebounding team,” she said. “We might not have the height, but no matter the height, you can still rebound.”

Mount Si returns to league play Friday, Jan. 9, at Juanita, in what could become a key game for the Wildcats. Game time is 6:30 p.m. Mount Si has not won a game since beating Sammamish Dec. 12.

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