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Monday, Mar. 03, 2008

The final week of the hoops season

What a fun last 24 hours. A trio of 3A regional basketball games. Witnessing a bar fight. A smashed-in window. And getting called out for not blogging on a 24/7 basis.

Ah, the regional games. The Kennewick boys, to be frank, didn't deserve one of the three state berths. The Lions were a flawed team -- no inside game, way too dependent on the 3-pointer to stay in games. They hustled and played hard on defense, but they couldn't score on a consistent basis. In the end, the three best teams in the regional tournament earned the trips to Seattle.

Then came the interlude as tournament officials wrestled with the eternal question: How do you put a net on a rim? Apparently, Art Dawald Gym has a new style of rims (something to do with a wire that you string it on instead of weaving it through hooks) on which no one knew how to replace a net. Once the Mount Spokane boys finished cutting down the nets following their victory in the championship game, out came the new net from its package. And ... nothing.

For 35 minutes, one after another, they climbed the ladder, stared, fiddled, and were befuddled. How do we put the net on this thing?

At first, the players stood around, laughing, figuring this won't take long. Then came the realization that, uh, OK, maybe this will take long.

The jokes ran down press row. Hey, they could play halfcourt ball for the title. Or maybe we could play in the upper gym. My "suggestion" to the coaches was they should run their layup line together, each team on one side.

West Valley coach Greg Oldham started playing Two-square with the Kamiakin players. After a few minutes, that grew old. Braves coach Tammy Hutchison liked my suggestion, and both teams took the court and went through the layup line twice as the fans cheered them on.

Then the coaches came up with another idea -- a game of Bump. With the P.A. announcer calling the game as if it were for the regional title, the teams engaged in a spirited contest. Kamiakin came out the victors, and still no net on the other rim.

Tournament directors sent the teams to the upper gym to warm up. They were going to try taping the net to the rim. Or maybe switch a rim from the upper gym with the netless one from the main court.

Then, someone finally figured out how to get the net on the darned thing. After a few minutes, the teams were back on the main floor, getting ready for the game.

And an entertaining game it was. The teams played fast and loose, as if they were still playing a game of Bump.

"That definitely relaxed us," Hutchison said of the pregame fun and games. "With all the tension, it had to relax everybody."

Then came the final game -- Hanford vs. East Valley (Spokane). The Knights were without their top scorer, junior Kelsi Jacobson, who suffered a partial tear of the ACL in her left knee in their district championship win over Mount Spokane.

And without her, they didn't have the firepower to match a fired-up Hanford team. The Falcons scored the game's first 13 points, weathered EV's return shot that saw the Knights cut the deficit to two in the second quarter, then took off again to an eventual 20-point victory.

Neither the Braves nor the Falcons ended up with an incredibly difficult draw Sunday when the WIAA set the state bracket. Kamiakin got Enumclaw, which grabbed the final berth out of the West Central/Southwest District tournament, while Hanford got Ferndale, which upset Meadowdale in the Northwest District title game.

The Braves got a winnable first-round game, and they'd better win it, because otherwise their odds of going 0-2-barbeque are pretty good -- they're in the same quarter as Lakeside and Kennedy, both top-10 teams all season.

The Falcons, meanwhile, are in the same quarter as Bellevue, ranked No. 7 in the final AP poll (Hanford is No. 9).

Meadowdale, by the way, ended up in the "quarter of death" with Bainbridge, top-ranked and defending champion Auburn Riverside, and Lakes. A pretty good team is going to go home Thursday morning with nothing to show for their state experience.

The three area 2A schools that qualified for state also got generally decent draws.

The Prosser boys, beaten by Ephrata in the CWAC district championship game, weren't hammered too hard by the draw gods. The Mustangs got Cheney, the third-place team out of the Great Northern League.

The Prosser girls, beaten by Ellensburg in the district final, also got the GNL's third-place team, Clarkston, while Othello -- which beat East Valley to grab the CWAC's final berth -- gets Southwest District runner-up Black Hills.

The Huskies, making their first-ever state appearance, and Black Hills both were ranked in the final AP poll -- Othello No. 4, Black Hills No. 9. But maybe Othello can follow its Basin neighbors' lead and, like Moses Lake, make a run to the final in its maiden voyage.

Speaking of Moses Lake, it was a pretty good week for area teams at state tournaments. Six teams brought home hardware for the trophy case, including a trio of runners-up -- the ML girls in 4A, and the River View boys and Columbia (Burbank) girls in 1A.

While River View and Burbank were both senior-led teams that took advantage of their state experience to make runs to the finals for the first time, Moses Lake is almost all underclassmen. Yes, the graduation of Ann Noyes -- one of the more underrated players in the area -- will hurt, but with the nucleus of Carly Noyes, Kelly Sutherland and Jordan Loera returning, the Chiefs will be back next year as one of the favorites.

As for the Pasco girls, who placed sixth after losing to Moses Lake in the semis, they gained valuable experience with their state-tournament run. The Bulldogs also are an underclassman-laden team, with two of their best players -- sophomore Danielle Walter and freshman Hayley Hodgins -- having strong playoff performances. That bodes well for next year.

The Richland boys, who placed eighth, maximized their potential and showed their toughness throughout their run. Winning twice in one day at regionals, then knocking off a good Kentridge team Friday to earn a trophy, says a lot about this team, which on paper didn't have the athletes to hang with a team the likes of Bellarmine Prep -- but did for the better part of three quarters in Wednesday's first round.

Finally, there are the Connell boys, who took fourth at the 1A state tournament. Scott Sandsberry of the Yakima Herald-Republic said when he first saw me at the SunDome on Thursday that the Eagles were his pick to win it all after he watched the Day 1 games, and considering their only loss came on a phenomenal buzzer-beating shot in the quarterfinals, maybe they could have won it all. Again, their ability to bounce back from that heartbreaking loss to take home a trophy -- beating defending champ Brewster in the fourth-place game Saturday -- says a lot about this team.

Well, I'm headed to Bank of America Arena this week for the 3A girls tournament. See ya there.

Til next time ...