By Jeremy Martin

For the second time in under a month, neighborhood rivals Chief Sealth International and West Seattle High met in a Metro League girl’s basketball clash, and much like the first meet up of the season, the Wildcats came away with a hard fought victory, besting the Seahawks 60-38

“Rival games are always a fun win,” West Seattle head coach Sonya Elliott said.

It was a game of runs with West Seattle breaking things open early, Sealth tightening the contest up before the half with a 10-2 run than the Wildcats once again taking over in the final two quarters of play.

The win came without starting center Lydia Giomi who did not dress for the contest due to a concussion she suffered against Cleveland High.
Starting in her place was junior Sarah Cooper who used the newfound playing time to put up five points and grab 9 rebounds while also coming away with three steals.

“(Giomi) will be out for a little bit, it’s five days minimum after she feels better,” Elliott said. (Cooper) played well tonight, and we had Ingraham the other night and she did a good job, it’s great to have her get that time on the court.”

Besides Cooper’s work underneath, West Seattle was led by sophomore Gabby Sarver who seemed to do a little bit of everything including a whole lot of scoring for the victorious Wildcats.

Sarver, who had a solid first half, was absolutely on fire in the second, finishing with a game high 19 points while also nabbing 9 steals, pulling down 5 rebounds and dishing out four assists.

The Wildcats also got help from sophomore Lexi Ioane who put up 18 points to go with her game high 12 rebounds and six assists.

Junior Charli Elliott added five points and 9 rebounds for the Wildcats.

Two first quarter Wildcat runs of 10-0 apiece opened the game up early and allowed West Seattle to dictate the flow and tempo.

The Wildcats press and ability to run off of turnovers flustered the Seahawks early, but Sealth none the less settled down, purposefully slowing the tempo in order to keep West Seattle out of fast break opportunities.

“I told them to fight back. We couldn’t break their extended defense, but when we did we were able to go on a run. That’s also when we finally started to move the ball around. That’s what happened in the second quarter, we were fired up going into the third but just couldn’t keep it going,” Chief Sealth head coach Kati Jo Maris said.

The Seahawks second quarter surge was led by the back court duo of senior Sidney Proctor and junior O’Shea Walker who both found ways to get past Wildcat double teams and slash to the rim for a series of layups in the paint.

The visitors also got a major second half contribution from Allison Hadaway who netted all of her 12 points in the final 16 minutes of play and many of her seven rebounds came from crashing the offensive glass.

“We’ve been focusing on rebounding a lot this past week and a half, these last couple of days we’ve focused on boxing out and following our shots,” Maris said.
Six Seahawk players finished with four or more rebounds, with seniors Allison Steele and Samantha Scroggins both grabbing five boards.

Scroggins would also net five points and five steals. Proctor tied Hadaway for the team scoring lead with 12 points and Walker contributed with six.

The Seahawks were able to whittle a 20 point deficit down to 8 midway through the second quarter before the Wildcats once again were able to find way to get out and run. Despite being held to only seven second quarter points, good ball movement and the ability to find open shooters helped West Seattle build a 29-16 advantage by halftime.