By Jeremy Martin

Friday night the West Seattle girl’s basketball team hosted Bishop Blanchet for its final home game of the season, better known as Senior Night.

There was just one problem; the Wildcats don’t carry a single senior on its roster, and its youth showed throughout as the older Braves club controlled tempo and hit jump shot after jump shot en route to a 47-37 win on the road.

“They’re (ranked) number two (in the state) right now, we knew this would be a tough game but I’m proud of the way we played during the last quarter,” Wildcats head coach Sonya Elliott said.

Having totaled only 16 points through the first three quarters, the Wildcats turned it on in the fourth putting up 21 points and cutting what was a twenty two point deficit to ten by the final buzzer.

Early on Blanchet used a full court trapping press and fell back into a 1-2-2 zone in the hope of keeping the athletic and strong Wildcats from setting up its half court offense.

The strategy worked as West Seattle was forced into errant passes, contested shots and never seemed to find a groove on the offensive end.

“Our shooting just wasn’t there tonight,” Elliott said. “We’re finally getting all of our players and trying to settle into our game, but we need to be more aggressive on defense, that’s what we need to do.”

The Wildcats were at nearly full strength after having several players sit out over the past couple of games due to injury and illness.

West Seattle took its first and only lead of the night at 9-8 midway through the first quarter following a Lexi Ioane triple from the top of the key. However the hot shooting Braves would immediately take control back on a mid range jump shot from Lee Erickson followed by Caitlyn Dixon’s second three pointer of the night.

Ioane’s shot counted for three of her game high 20 points. The sophomore also pulled down a team high seven rebounds.

Lydia Giomi, who had misses a few recent outings while recovering from a concussion was able to net seven points and tie Ioane with seven rebounds

Once again Charli Elliott showed a high motor, recording four rebounds and five steals.

While Ioane proved to be the only consistent scoring threat for the Wildcats, several Braves had big nights.

Freshman Jayden Bush led the charge for Blanchet, netting 17 points, many of her buckets coming off assists from fellow freshman Taylor Chambers.

Chambers finished the night with a game high seven assists while also recording four steals.

Dixon hit two three pointers for the Braves and finished with eight points.

The Wildcats will begin post season play on Tuesday night against Cleveland in the first round of the Metro League tournament.

This story will be updated with a slideshow