Near the end of their team’s Crossroads Cup loss to Interlake during the football season, the Sammamish student section found some life.

“LET’S-PLAY-BASKET-BALL!,” the chorus came down. Four games into the 2011-2012 season, it looks like they knew what they were talking about.

The Totems are making a strong case as the early season favorite in 3A KingCo and put another feather in their cap last night with a 72-69 win over Mercer Island.

George Valle poured in a game-high 32 points to lead the Totems back from a one point deficit heading into the fourth quarter. Dakota Olsen added 21 more and John Steinberg had 12 for coach Wes Newton’s still unbeaten squad.

Brian Miller led the previously undefeated Islanders (3-1, 1-1) with 17, Sam Cohn added 15 while Kaleb Warner finished with 12 and Sean Hughes chipped in 11.

Sammamish moves to 4-0 overall and 2-0 in the conference with wins by nine, 21 and 15 points to go with last night’s three-point win. Lake Washington is the only other unbeaten team with a mark of 2-0.

Newport 53 Inglemoor 37

The Knights trailed by two at the end of the first quarter before outscoring the Viks 35-14 in the middle two periods to take control in a 53-57 4A KingCo win.

Isaac Dotson led Newport with a game-high 17 and Jake Fink added 12.

Sam Omondi had 11 and Chris Bryant added 10 for Inglemoor in the loss.

Mount Si 71 Interlake 69 (OT)

The Wildcats got 19 points from Anthony McLaughlin to nip Interlake in overtime, 71-69.

The Saints had a seven point lead at the half before being outscored by 10 points in the third period.

Sam Finfer finished with a game-high 20 points for the Saints while Sam Shank added 19 and Kamana Adriano had 18.

Bellevue Christian 37 University Prep 19

Bryce Oldham’s 12 points helped the Vikings to a dominant win, 37-19 over U-Prep.

Bellevue Christian held Prep to nine points through the first three periods to take control.