Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2007

4A: Regionals back at home sites

By Rene Ferren, Herald staff writer

Perhaps the buses carrying the Pasco boys and Shadle Park girls to their 4A Eastern Regional openers today will pass each other on Highway 395.

The Bulldogs travel to Spokane to take on the Highlanders in a first-round matchup at 7:30 p.m., while at the same time, the Shadle girls are at Pasco High to take on the CBL 4A district champion Bulldogs.

For the first time since the 1980s, first-round games will be played at the home gyms, as opposed to neutral sites in the same locale.

"It worked out nice that we get to play on our home floor, because we've done pretty well here," said Pasco girls coach Steve Davis, whose team is 14-0 at home this season.

The boys didn't figure to be traveling north for the first round after winning the league regular-season title, but a desultory performance in a semifinal loss to eventual champion Eisenhower meant a long bus trip on a school night.

The saving grace for Pasco, though, was it bounced back to beat Moses Lake 62-51 in the seeding game Saturday, thus avoiding a matchup with unbeaten Ferris in Round 1.

That daunting task falls to the Chiefs, who face the Saxons in Spokane.

"After Friday night's game, we talked about it, but it wasn't something we got in depth about," said Pasco coach Chad Herron about a possible Ferris matchup. "On Saturday, what we talked about is that we wanted to play loose, and we did that."

Shadle's boys have a potent 1-2 punch on the perimeter in junior Zack Humphrey, who's averaging a team-best 16 points per game, and 6-5 sophomore Anthony Brown, a lefty who likes to slash to the basket at a 13.5 ppg clip.

"Both of them will be a tall task for us," Herron said. "We want to make them work hard for everything they get."

The Pasco girls needed overtime to defeat Moses Lake 47-45 on Saturday to earn their first district crown since 2003. Their reward is a Highlanders team that finished fourth in the GSL in the regular season and districts.

Shadle relies on inside-outside combo of Lexi Bishop, a Portland State-bound guard who's averaging 18.7 ppg, and junior post Lexie Pettersen (15.8 ppg).

"Watching the game films, they look like a pretty good 1-2 punch," Davis said. "We definitely have to contain those guys."

* René Ferrán: 582-1526; rferran@tricityherald.com. His blog on prep sports can be found at www.sportstricities.com

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