With 1:48 left in regulation of the Class 3A KingCo tournament championship game between the Bellevue Wolverines and Mercer Island Islanders boys basketball teams, Bellevue senior guard Sharif Khan fouled out of the game.
Khan, who scored a team-high 25 points for the Wolverines, propelled his team at both ends of the floor with passionate intensity en route to a 62-43 win against Mercer Island on Feb. 11 at Newport High School in Factoria. Bellevue improved their overall record to 20-1 with the win, while Mercer Island dropped to 16-6. It was the third occasion during the 2015-16 season the Wolverines were victorious against the Islanders. Bellevue head coach Chris O’Connor said his team knew coming into the game they had to play significantly better defensively than they did in a 71-65 win against Juanita on Feb. 9.
“We were pretty bad defensively on Tuesday (Feb. 9) so we watched a lot of film and talked about things in practice yesterday. We just challenged them to play better defensively. We told them that defense wins championships and if you want to be a champion tomorrow you got to play defense,” O’Connor said.
The Wolverines followed their coaches advice to the letter of the law. Bellevue surrendered just seven field goals and 15 points in the first half of play. Khan said defense is an area where his team had to improve with everything on the line in the playoffs.
“We have been working on it hard in practice. This year we haven’t been the most steady defensive team but we’re trying to get better. It showed tonight,” Khan said.
Khan stole an inbounds pass and scored on a difficult lay-up, extending Bellevue’s lead to 51-37 with 4:25 remaining in the fourth quarter. O’Connor is a huge fan of Khan’s game on the hardwood.
“He is such a good player. I don’t think people realize how good of a player he really is,” O’Connor said. “In my opinion he is one of the best shooters in the state. A lot of times he makes sacrifices because he handles the ball a lot and gives up scoring opportunities to run the team. He is just the ultimate teammate and the ultimate team player.”
Mercer Island head coach Gavin Cree said his team didn’t make the most of its chances on the offensive end of the floor.
“We were not good offensively tonight. Bellevue is a great defensive team. You have to give a lot of the credit to them. In the first half we didn’t move the ball enough and we didn’t take advantage of opportunities to go inside. We just didn’t run a good offense,” Cree said.
The Islanders will be the No. 2 seed from the KingCo conference at the Class 3A SeaKing District II tournament taking place through Feb. 20. While the Islanders are looking forward to the remainder of the playoffs, Cree admitted losing three times this season to Bellevue is tough for his team.
“They (Bellevue) have had the upper-hand the last few years. It has been frustrating for our guys. You have two communities that are very similar. A lot of the parents on both sides rub shoulders in the business world or went to school together. It is a fun rivalry. We just like to come out on the winning end and we haven’t done it this year,” he said.
