You don’t have to go far to see 6 regional hoops games this weekend

The road to the state basketball tournaments will run through West Pasco, as Chiawana High School is set to host to six regional games this weekend.

Action begins Friday with a pair of games featuring teams already guaranteed trips to the Tacoma Dome next week.

In the first game of the weekend, former Big 9 foes will renew their rivalry as the Davis Pirates boys take on the Richland Bombers at 6 p.m. The teams met in the Round of 12 at state last year, and the Bombers began their run to the semifinals with a 63-51 upset (according to RPI rankings) win. Both teams are their respective league champs this season, with Richland (22-1) coming off its first loss of the season, to Gonzaga Prep in the District 8 title game, and Davis (20-2) having just beaten Sunnyside for the third time this season.

Then, the Kamiakin Braves girls will try to kick-start their third straight state run against the Seattle Prep Panthers at 8 p.m. in a rematch of a 2017 state consolation game. The Braves won that meeting 64-40 against a Panthers squad that featured just one senior. Prep has two seniors this year, and an 18-4 record that features wins over Lake Stevens (19-3, No. 4 in 4A), Garfield (20-6, No. 3 in 3A) and Redmond (21-4, No. 15 in 3A). The No. 4 Braves (20-2) won the District 8 title game over Mt. Spokane on Thursday, and shared the league championship with Chiawana.

The winners of Friday’s games advance straight to the quarterfinals, on March 1, while the losers have to play in the Round of 12 on Feb. 28.

The lone MCC squad hoping to punch its ticket to state with a win this weekend is the No. 14 Kamiakin boys team, which hits the road to face the No. 11 Stanwood Spartans (16-7) at 4 p.m. Saturday at Henry Jackson High School in Mill Creek. A senior-heavy 2017 Spartans squad looked impressive en route to a fourth-place finish at state, with its only playoff losses coming against state title game combatants Garfield (83-76 in regionals) and Nathan Hale (86-63 in the quarterfinals). The Braves (17-5) just won their second straight district title, and are trying to reach the Dome for the first time since 2012 as they dropped a regional game to Lincoln in ’16 and a crossover against Bellevue last year.

Saturday will feature a pretty full slate at Chiawana, with the Tri-Cities Prep girls (17-5) taking on Friday Harbor (8-11) at 2 p.m., followed by the Jaguar boys (19-3) playing EWAC foe White Swan (11-14) at 4 p.m. At 6 p.m., the Sunnyside girls (16-6) will try to book passage to their second straight state tournament against the University Titans (16-8), and the nightcap will feature a rematch of a triple-overtime CWAC girls district semifinal game between the Prosser Mustangs (18-5) and the East Valley (Yakima) Red Devils (17-6), at 8 p.m. Winners of all of these games will advance to the state Round of 12, while the losers’ seasons will end.

Adult admission for each day of regionals is $11, and student and senior tickets cost $9.

This story was originally published February 20, 2018 at 5:33 PM with the headline "You don’t have to go far to see 6 regional hoops games this weekend."