Redmond High’s basketball teams are 3A KingCo playoff bound this weekend and they shifted into high gear with wins over Interlake High to close out their regular-season journey on Monday night.
Aleks Bober led the Mustang boys with 16 points in a 66-50 victory, the team’s sixth win in its last seven KingCo games.
For the Redmond girls, Andrea Dang led the way with 12 points in a 58-44 win, the team’s third consecutive KingCo triumph. Haley Hanson added 11 points and Kiki Milloy and Teagyn Ohrt tallied 10 points each for the Mustangs.
Dang and Meghan Egberg tallied 13 points each in Redmond’s 62-48 girls basketball victory over Juanita in a 3A KingCo playoff seeding game on Wednesday night.
Redmond (9-5 league, 13-8 overall) is the No. 3 seed and will play No. 2 host Bellevue (12-2 league, 18-2 overall) at 5 p.m. Saturday. Mercer Island (14-0 league, 16-3 overall) is the No. 1 seed. Bellevue defeated Redmond, 47-38 and 57-47, in both of the teams’ meetings this year.
On the Redmond boys’ side, the Mustangs (9-5, 11-9) are the No. 3 seed and will battle No. 2 host Bellevue (11-3, 13-3) at 7 p.m. Saturday. Mercer Island (11-3, 13-7) is the No. 1 seed. Redmond and Bellevue split their meetings this season, with Bellevue winning the first matchup, 59-35, and Redmond taking the second meeting, 39-36.
Redmond’s boys also downed Lake Washington, 48-45, and Eastlake, 59-57, last Friday and Saturday.
“We definitely came together at the end of the year. After our trip to (San Francisco) California, we’ve been working on our defense a lot, which has definitely been holding us up right now. Chemistry is coming together really well, it’s been a really fun year,” said Bober, adding that they learned from their mistakes and had a good talk following the Bay Area tournament to push them on their KingCo roll.
Other standouts for the boys in recent weeks have been Kevin Gordon, who scored 13 points and snatched eight rebounds against Liberty; and Devon La Pierre and Graham Sheffer, who had 10 points each in an earlier Interlake matchup.
Bober said that playoff success will come if the Mustangs keep their composure, stay poised and keep pushing. The Mustang guard notes that confidence and leadership have been two of his priorities this season.
“I can’t do anything without my teammates. I wouldn’t want to be with any other group of guys,” he said. “It’s a great bond that we have, and on the court it all comes together.”
On the girls’ side, Redmond also defeated Sammamish, 60-39, and Lake Washington, 65-39, in recent contests.
Ohrt said she’s gotten an adrenaline rush this season being a part of the Mustangs’ confident mindset.
“It’s been really interesting because we haven’t played these teams since we’re new to 3A, and so we’re purely just going straight off our energy and going straight off of playing as a team,” she said. “Win after win, it’s just keeps on rolling. It’s a lot of fun.”
One of seven junior leaders — there are no seniors — Ohrt said that when she and other players pour in points, their teammates become excited and jump into the scoring action.
There’s another important factor to the Mustangs’ success:
“I love how all of us are friends on the court and off the court and that really translates when we play together,” Ohrt said.
OTHER ACTION
• Overlake’s boys defeated Bear Creek, 56-49, last Friday. Trent Gardner led Overlake with 14 points, followed by Owen Friend and Zeyad Daher with 13 each. For Bear Creek, Colby Cadigan had 20 points.
Jace Blankenbecker amassed 32 points for Bear Creek in its 87-45 win over Eastside Prep on Saturday.
• Overlake’s girls defeated Bear Creek, 35-29, last Friday. Oli Wilson led the way with 11 points for Overlake, followed by Holly Harris with 10. For Bear Creek, Alyson Wong tallied 16 points.
In Overlake’s 41-26 victory over Forest Ridge on Tuesday, Amanda Lin led the Owls with 10 points.
Bear Creek defeated Eastside Prep, 48-24, on Saturday. Ashley Cowman and Delaney Montgomery had 17 points each.
