Bellevue, WA - The Trojans avenged a three point loss two weeks ago to Bellevue, defeating the Bulldogs 55-54 on their own home floor in thrilling fashion. This was the second game in a row that the Trojans have won by a one point margin and the 4th game of the season that was decided by five points or less.
The first quarter of action was tight in the first 8 minutes of the quarter, and the Trojans took their first lead of the game on a Monet Rundle Jump shot to put EvCC up 9-8. But Bellevue put on a show to close out the quarter going on an 8-2 run to go up 16-11. Everett responded by playing solid defense in the 2nd quarter, holding BC to just 3 of 17 from the floor and 8 points. The offense was led by Mikail Montez's eight 2nd quarter points catapulting the the Trojans to a 28-24 lead at the half. Montez kept the hot hand going in the third, going 4 for 4 from the field and finishing the quarter with another 9 points. Bellevue stayed in the game by hitting four, three pointers in the quarter, but the Trojans still went into the 4th quarter with a 45-38 lead.
The seven point advantage would increase to ten after a Mikail Montez three pointer to open up the final quarter of play. From that point however, the shooting went cold for EvCC and Bellevue went on a 10-0 scoring run over the next five minutes of action. Everett stopped the bleeding at the four minute mark on a Thuyvi Tran jumper to put the Trojans back on top 50-48. With under a minute to play, Everett held on to a 53-51 lead. Bellvue's Rokki Brown hit a three with 9 seconds remaining putting the Bulldogs up by one.
After a Trojan timeout, Sydney VanNess caught the inbounds pass near half court, but was fouled with three seconds remaining, putting her on the line for two free throws. The freshman calmly hit both shots to put the Trojans back up 55-54. Bellevue called a timeout and advanced the ball. Working with three seconds, the Bulldogs got the ball inbounds. Mo Bungay drove the baseline with Sydney VanNess on her left side. Bungay was cut off by ThuyVi Tran on helpside defense and as the shot went up, it was deflected as time expired with no foul called.
Mikail Montez led all scorers with 20 points on 7 of 11 shooting and added 9 rebounds. Courtney Perry scored 13 and collected 11 rebounds for second game in a row with double digit rebounds. Sydney VanNess had an off shooting night but still came away with 10 points including the would-be game winning free throws and hauled in 8 rebounds. As a team it was the best field goal shooting percentage of the season at 40.4%.
Everett improves to 5-3 on the season with a Wednesday night home matchup against Peninsula. The Trojans are 1-1 against the Pirates this season.