Bellevue boys top Mount Si for KingCo title

By Joel Willits • February 20, 2010 1:51 am
Wolverine forward Evian Richard (4) celebrates a three point basket with less than a second left in the first half against Mount Si in the KingCo 3A league title game on Friday.
Wolverine forward Evian Richard (4) celebrates a three point basket with less than a second left in the first half against Mount Si in the KingCo 3A league title game on Friday.

When Mount Si started to make its run late in the fourth quarter of the KingCo 3A championship game, Bellevue didn’t panic.

Led by senior point guard Aaron Bright, the Wolverines didn’t lose their composure when the Wildcats whittled their 11 point lead to just four with a minute left to play.

With a two-time conference MVP at the point, why panic at all?

Bright helped Bellevue weather the late Mount Si storm, hitting five free throws in the final 1:58 and leading the Wolverines to a 61-56 win over the Wildcats at Bellevue College.

It was the second straight KingCo 3A tournament title for the Wolverines – and after the game, Bright was named the conference’s most valuable player for the second season in a row.

“I told our guys that they knew this was going to happen, they were going to make a run and their fans would get into it,” Bright said. “It was going to come down to just playing better basketball.”

Thanks to Bright and his game-high 29 points, Bellevue (20-2) did for three quarters. But it was Mount Si, who knocked off Bellevue 63-50 just ten days prior, that came out swinging. The Wildcats (16-6) came out hot, jumping out to an early 12-5 lead before Bright scored eight of the Wolverines next ten points, helping Bellevue to trail just 18-15 after the first.

“Our coach told us after we lost to them to remember the feeling, because we were going to see them again,” Bright said. “We never forgot that feeling. They punched us in the mouth in the first quarter, but from then on we picked it up.”

Mount Si’s shooting touch went cold in the second quarter as the Wildcats shot just 2 of 14 from the floor.

“We started to mix it up on them,” said Bellevue coach Chris O’Conner. “We did a good job of keeping our focus and switching up our defenses.”

The Wildcats entered the fourth quarter trailing by 11 points thanks to Zander Nelson (20 points) and Tanner Riley (14), they were able to claw their way back in.

But when it came down to it, Bright made the plays for the Wolverines, making plays with the ball to force the Wildcats to send him to the line.

“He makes up for a lot of sins sometimes,” O’Conner said. “He’s such a good ball handler, such a good shooter, it’s nice to have him at the end of the game.”

Bellevue will receive a bye heading into next week’s Sea-King district tournament.

“It’s huge,” O’Conner said. “Having that bye and not being in a loser-out game was important to us because the Sea-King is such a tough district.”