Both West Seattle High School basketball teams advanced in the district tournament tonight, in victories at home. We’ll tell you about the games separately, starting with the girls:

“Welcome to win or go home basketball,” is how the announcer started the night. The WSHS girls went all out to avoid the latter, first to score against Bishop Blanchet, and never behind, winning 61-50. #4, senior Carmen Cruz, was top scorer with 21 points, including four 3-pointers.

Second-leading scorer was #21, junior Alyssa Neumann, with 17:

Right behind was #15, senior Lucy Larson, with 16, including three 3’s:

Halftime score was 33-24.

Head coach Darnell Taylor‘s Wildcats emerged for the second half with even tighter defense than they’d deployed to keep the lead throughout the first half.

But then toward the end of the third quarter they started to falter a bit. Blanchet got within two points at the start of the fourth quarter, 42-40, but then a Cruz three-pointer snapped them out of it, and they kept the Bears at bay the rest of the way. This was the third time WSHS had beaten Blanchet this season. Next up, the Wildcat girls face Lake Washington at Sammamish High School (100 140th Ave. SE, Bellevue) at 6:30 pm Tuesday (February 13th) – see the full district-tournament bracket here.