WWCC men and women in Final Four of NWAC Championships

The Walla Walla Community College basketball teams are riding high after the men’s and women’s squads advanced to the Final Four of the NWAC Championships last weekend.

The Warrior women, led by Cierra Jo McKeown (Touchet), opened play with a 74-63 win over Clackamas, then followed with a 63-57 win over Lower Columbia.

“We were coming in not knowing what to expect,” coach Bobbi Hazeltine said. “Everyone there is good. We got a decent draw. We game plan like crazy and get our kids to buy in. We knew we had to play really well to beat Lower Columbia and Clackamas, which beat us in December. To get these wins was pretty exciting. Not one kid on the team has been there before. Going back is exciting.

“It’s pretty cool that both teams are going over. When the men won, we were pretty excited. We had hoped to join them.”

The Warriors will play Skagit Valley at 4 p.m. Saturday at Everett Community College.

The WWCC men slipped past Pierce College 69-67 in their opening game, then beat Whatcom 100-80 behind 22 points from Dalton Thompson.

“This is the first time I’ve been to the Final Four where we haven’t been the underdog,” said WWCC coach Jeff Reinland, whose team is in the Final Four for the first time since 2007. “There is a lot of parity in the NWAC right now in men’s basketball. Of the 16 teams, there’s not much difference between any of them. This year it is really balanced. North Idaho and South Puget Sound got knocked out, and they were two of the favorites.”

The Warriors, the No. 3 seed from the East Region, have the late game Saturday, playing Lower Columbia at 8 p.m.

Ties that bind

Former Richland standout Landon Radliff was pretty much penciled in on the Warriors’ roster before he signed his letter of intent.

Older brother Dylan played at WWCC and is an assistant coach there. The middle Radliff brother, Payton, also played at WWCC, finishing his eligibility last season.

The cherry on top? Radliff’s dad, Reese, played at Highline Community College when Reinland played at WWCC.

“There is a little history there,” Reinland said. “He went on to play at Central Washington, and I played at Eastern Washington. We had just gone to the Big Sky, but we had that rivalry. We still played a home-and-home series. I told him he was the second-best shooter to come out the Pacific Northwest.”

Landon Radliff had two spectacular games to open the tournament, averaging 15.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, seven assists and two steals, and shot 56 percent from the floor.

“Landon has gotten better since the year has gone along,” Reinland said. “He’s made a good transition from Richland High. At times, he has been one of our better players on the floor. He is one of the main guys to handle the ball for us.”

Against Lower Columbia on Saturday, Reinland will face off against coach Jim Roffler, who also was an NWAC rival back in the day.

“In 1982, I played for Walla Walla and he played for Lower Columbia,” Reinland said. “We played each other at the tournament. We won that game with home-court advantage. The tournament was at the dome in Walla Walla back then.”

The Warriors and Red Devils faced each other in December, with WWCC winning 99-92. Walla Walla made a school record 23 3-pointers that night — nine by Gabe Porter (Walla Walla High School).

“We did all of that and only won by seven,” Reinland said. “It will be a tough game. We are pretty evenly matched.”

WWCC Women

McKeown pretty much had her way against Clackamas and Lower Columbia last week. She drove the lane, shot uncontested from the 3-point line, and averaged 28.5 points per game.

“It was kind of puzzling,” Hazeltine said. “She was Freshman of the Year. I thought everyone knew about her. She got more wide-open looks than I thought she would, and she does a lot on her own. They leave her open and she will pop a 3. Until they guard her, she has the green light. She is tough to guard. This second week, they will be more aware of her. If they do, we’ve got a lot of kids who can get the job done.”

The Warriors have had the luxury of playing in front of a large contingent of fans in Everett.

“We have had great crowds from Walla Walla,” Hazeltine said. “I’m impressed with the fans we have there. They are loud. We have a lot of Idaho kids on the team, who are 8-9 hours away, and their families come. It tells you about the kind of kids we recruit.”

New tournament format

This year’s tournament is single elimination, making each game that much more important. Hazeltine, for one, is not a fan.

“It’s all do-or-die, loser go home,” Hazeltine said. “There were times in both games last week I thought we might be going home. There is a sense of urgency. I don’t like it. I’m an old-timer who loved the Toyota Center, four straight days, and if you lost, you still had a chance for a trophy. That’s just me. There’s a lot of young blood who wanted change.”

Reinland also is not a fan of the new format.

“I like the old tournament we had at Toyota Center,” Reinland said. “You had to be beaten twice to be out of the tournament. I told Bobbi to look on the bright side — you can’t lose two games.”

One positive of the old format, Reinland said, was getting the community college players more exposure with additional games.

“A big part of what we are about is exposure for the kids to be seen by college coaches,” he said. “Anything we can do to increase their exposure is good. Some coaches felt the consolation games were kind of melancholy. We were the only college tournament in the country that wasn’t single elimination. I understand the reasoning behind, but I don’t like it.”

This story was originally published March 17, 2017 at 3:20 PM with the headline "WWCC men and women in Final Four of NWAC Championships."