Folsom, Redmond Sink M.I. -- Mustangs, Rebels To Play Tonight For Kingco Title

The end struck like lightning, but the storm was seen coming for 4 1/2 minutes.

After missing his first seven shots from thre-point range, Redmond senior Josh Folsom finally sank one with one second left to give the second-ranked Mustangs a 51-48 victory over Mercer Island in the KingCo Conference boys basketball tournament semifinals last night at Seattle Center Arena.

Redmond (19-3) earned its fifth straight berth in the KingCo final and will seek its second straight title - third in four years - when it plays eighth-ranked Juanita (17-4) tonight at 8:30.

Juanita beat Newport 68-51 last night in the other KingCo semifinal game. In their only meeting this season, Redmond beat Juanita 63-60.

Seventh-ranked Mercer Island (15-6) plays Newport (15-6) for third place today at 3:15 p.m.

"I wasn't using my legs or something," Folsom said of his shooting woes for most of the game. "Everything I put up was going off the front rim. It was bad. It (winning shot) felt the same. It just went in.

"I was pretty stunned."

No more stunned than the Islanders, who didn't score in the game's final 4:31 and who still led 48-42 with less than two minutes to play.

"The shot wasn't what beat us," M.I. Coach Ed Pepple said. "Not taking care of the ball in the last minute and a half - pretty uncharacteristic of Mercer Island basketball.

"That should be money in the bank."

Instead, Folsom and Allen Andrews picked the Islanders' pockets on consecutive possessions and wound up making deposits for Redmond.

Folsom turned a steal into a breakaway layup with 1:40 left. A a few seconds later Andrews tipped an M.I. pass to Rustin Beck, who then threw a long pass to the streaking Andrews for another breakaway. Andrews was fouled and sank both free throws to make it 48-46 with 1:24 left.

Then after a foul on the Mercer Island inbounds, Beck rebounded a missed Islander free throw to start the possession he finished with a layup off a Josh McFadyen assist. That tied the score with 1:06 left.

Mercer Island worked the clock down to less than 10 seconds, got the ball to Jamal Hill, who drove the baseline for a layup that was denied on a controversial travel call.

That gave Redmond and Folsom 6.1 seconds to get the last shot.

Folsom finished with 12 points, three below his average.

It was Redmond's second straight win over M.I. - the first time since 1990 the Mustangs have beaten the Islanders in back-to-back games.

Andrews led Redmond with 18 points. Markus Hallgrimson scored 18 on 6-of-11 three-point shooting for Mercer Island. Islander teammate Jason Cooper also scored 18.

M.I. junior Terik Brown, who finished the season third in KingCo scoring (19.6 ppg), didn't start after missing school and practice all week with strep throat. He finished with eight points in about three quarters of play.

JUANITA 68, NEWPORT 51

The Fieldhouse at Kirkland's Juanita High School was spray painted with obscene language and images late Thursday or early Friday - all or most referring to last night's game.

Said guard Marques DeCottle: "We saw it this morning. . . . I just got pumped."

The graffiti, which did not appear to be the work of Newport players, might have been as much a distraction to the Knights as it was a motivation to the Rebels.

Newport players were pulled out of class yesterday, Coach Rich Belcher said, after Juanita administrators sent a videotape of the graffiti to Newport administrators. "There were no accusations made," Belcher said. "That's not what lost us the game, but it gave them (Rebels) added motivation."

DeCottle, for one, used the motivation to open the game with a steal and breakaway layup. He had three of his six steals in the first quarter as Juanita grabbed leads of 16-7 and 18-9.

"I think it pumped the kids up," Juanita Coach Jim McDonald said. "It was kind of a challenge to us. They came over and insulted our fans, insulted our players and insulted our community. We wanted to stand up and say . . . "

Say what?

How about "look for us in the final."

Matt Halverson led Juanita with 17 points. David Oswell scored 22 and Jason Maners 16 for Newport.