(WSB photos by Patrick Sand)
Story and video by Randall G. Hauk
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

Pep band? Check! Mascots? Check! Cheerleaders and dance squad? Check! Crowded bleachers? Check! Two varsity-level basketball contests between local rivals? Check!

What else could you ask for from your Friday night on the peninsula?

Did you say ‘overtime?’

Sure! Why not?!

Chief Sealth International High School played a gracious, but not too gracious host, to cross-neighborhood rival West Seattle High School, with the Sealth girls winning 55-41 before the Seahawk boys gave the packed gym an overtime thriller, coming away with a 63-59 victory.

(More details, video, photos ahead)

A steal and lay-up late in regulation by Chief Sealth’s Charlie Smith brought his team back to even with West Seattle and sending the game to overtime.

The energized Seahawks scored the first five points of the extra frame and never looked back. Pepé Hernandez and Aaron Knox had divided Sealth’s ten overtime points evenly, giving Hernandez 13 for the night and Knox a team-high 21.

DeAndre Coulter was the leading scorer for West Seattle with 23.

Enthusiastic fans were brought to their feet early and often when first Hernandez and later West Seattle’s LaTrey Newsome (15 points; featured in clip above this paragraph) delighted the crowd in an exchange of slam dunks in a first quarter that featured a few early lead changes before Sealth charged out to a 25-20 lead by the first intermission.

The scoring pace slowed to nearly a halt with only 25 points total scored in the second quarter, leading to a 35-35 deadlock at the half.

The third quarter yielded yet fewer points, 18, with Sealth gaining the edge and a 45-43 lead.

Even the first half of the fourth quarter showed no signs of the thrilling conclusion to come, with only one basket to show for the first four minutes of the final frame.

The teams made up for the scoring slump by closing with 16 points in the last four minutes of regulation and the extra basketball courtesy of the overtime.

The boys were not the only ones elevated by an electric atmosphere, however.

Chief Sealth girls’ coach Katie Maris (above right, with WSHS coach Sonya Elliott) credited the larger crowd on-hand and the energy of a rivalry game for sparking her team’s balanced attack, which saw four starters score in double digits, leading to a 55-41 win earlier in the evening.

Zoe Haywood led the Seahawks with 17 points, while Mariah Rubio-Reboca (13), Victoria Elleby (13 – nailing a 3-pointer in the clip above this paragraph), and Averie Mascarinas (10) joined her in having double-digit scoring nights.

Haily Hage paced the West Seattle girls with 15 points.

While Sealth was in charge pretty much from the start, it was a 22-point second quarter that foreshadowed a comfortable win for the home team, with Haywood and Rubio-Reboca combining for 17 in that period. From there, Sealth’s size and low-post game was too much for the Wildcats to overcome.

(Chief Sealth’s award-winning band and director Marcus Pimpleton)
WHAT’S NEXT: The West Seattle girls (0-5) will continue their search for their first victory of the young season tonight with another game with a nearby opponent when they host Seattle Lutheran at 6 p.m., following the boys (1-3) game, slated for 4:45. The Chief Sealth girls (4-2) will hope to extend their three-game winning streak Tuesday when they host Evergreen at 7 p.m., while the boys (4-1) are off until Wednesday, when they’ll host Garfield at 7 p.m.