Bellevue girls go back-to-back

Top-seeded Bellevue held off Mercer Island 61-54 behind a team high 20 points from freshman Shelby Cansler to claim their second 3A KingCo tournament title in as many years on Thursday at Bellevue College.

Coach Leah Krautter’s team will take a number one seed and a bye along with their 21-1 record to next week’s 3A Sea-King District tournament. They will face a Metro foe on Tuesday at BC in a 6:30 p.m. tip.

Krautter, who is in her second season as the head coach of the Wolverines, was also named conference Coach of the Year and saw her star freshman garner KingCo MVP honors.

Boys dropped by Islanders

Regular season champion Mercer Island took the tournament title back across Lake Washington as well with a 51-47 win over Bellevue on Thursday at Bellevue College in the 3A KingCo tournament championship game.

Conference MVP Joe Rasmussen scored 13 points to lead the way for MI and Kyle Foreman put in 13 of his own for the Wolverines, who will be seeded second in next week’s 3A Sea-King District tournament.

Bellevue will face the eighth seeded team from the Metro League tournament Bainbridge, on Saturday at home in a 7 p.m. tip.