2 Tri-Cities teams end basketball season unbeaten. Who to watch in the playoffs

Congratulations to the Richland Bombers boys and the Kamiakin Braves girls, who finished up Mid-Columbia Conference basketball regular-season play this week with victories.

With those wins, both teams completed MCC regular-season play with perfect records — both going 16-0.

And now, we’re set to begin District 8 tournament play with the Greater Spokane League teams.

The Class 4A boys and girls start tourney play with games on Friday, while the Class 3A boys and girls begin play on Saturday.

MCC boys final standings

Richland (Class 4A) 16-0 MCC, 18-2 overall

Kamiakin (4A) 13-3, 15-5

Chiawana (4A) 11-5, 13-7

Kennewick (3A) 9-7, 13-7

Walla Walla (3A) 8-8, 9-11

Hermiston (3A) 7-9, 9-11

Southridge (3A) 5-11, 7-13

Hanford (4A) 2-14, 2-18

Pasco (4A) 1-15, 1-18

MCC girls final standings

Kamiakin (Class 4A) 16-0 MCC, 18-2 overall

Richland (4A) 13-3, 15-5

Chiawana (4A) 11-5, 12-8

Kennewick (3A) 11-5, 12-8

Walla Walla (3A) 8-8, 10-10

Hermiston (3A) 7-9, 9-12

Hanford (4A) 4-12, 7-13

Southridge (3A) 2-14, 3-17

Pasco (4A) 0-16, 0-20

District tournaments

All four district tournaments run through Saturday, Feb. 18. All games in these tournaments will be played at the higher seeds.

Here is the opening round of games for the 4A boys tournament, which starts this coming Friday, Feb. 10:

Game 1, Pasco at Richland, 7 p.m.; Game 2, Chiawana at Lewis & Clark, 6 p.m.; Game 3, Central Valley at Kamiakin, 7 p.m.; Game 4, Hanford at Gonzaga Prep, 7 p.m.

The championship game will be played on Saturday, Feb. 18, and the top three teams will advance to the state 4A regionals.

The opening round of the 4A girls tournament also starts on Friday, Feb. 10. They are:

Game 1, Pasco at Kamiakin, 5 p.m.; Game 2, Chiawana at Gonzaga Prep, 5 p.m.; Game 3, Lewis & Clark at Richland, 5 p.m.; Game 4, Hanford at Central Valley, 6 p.m.

Like the 4A boys tournament, the 4A girls championship game will be played on Saturday, Feb. 18, and the top three teams will advance to the state 4A regionals.

Meanwhile, the 3A boys and girls district tournaments all begin on Saturday, Feb. 11, all at higher seeds’ homes. Championship games are set for Thursday, Feb. 16, and state play-in games will be held on Saturday, Feb. 18.

The top two teams in each tournament will qualify for the 3A state regionals.

Here’s the hard part about these 3A district tourneys: Saturday’s first-round games are loser-out contests. So teams need to bring their best games right from the start.

Here are the 3A boys first-round contests on Saturday:Game 1, University at Kennewick, 6 p.m.; Game 2, Hermiston at Ferris, 6 p.m.; Game 3, Mead at Walla Walla, 7 p.m.; Game 4, North Central at Mt. Spokane, 7 p.m.

And here are the 3A girls first-round games, also on Saturday:

Game 1, Ferris at Kennewick, 4 p.m.; Game 2, Hermiston at Mt. Spokane, 5 p.m.; Game 3, University at Walla Walla, 5 p.m.; Game 4, Ridgeline at Mead, 6 p.m.

▪ Thanks to Parker Hodge’s website, we know that Hermiston ended up having the top scorer in both MCC boys and girls.

The Bulldogs’ Grant Olsen, who crossed over the 1,000 career-points mark this season, led all MCC boys in scoring with an average of 23.2 points a game.

Kamiakin’s Peter Dress was the only other boys player who averaged over 20 points a game, finishing 20.5 points a game to finish second.

The rest of the top five looks like this: Richland’s Josh Woodard at 19.2, Southridge’s Jesse Tijerina at 18.8, and Kennewick’s Jonah Gebers at 16.9 a game.

All but Gebers are juniors.

On the girls’ side, Hermiston sophomore Izzy Simmons led the MCC with 19.1 points a game.

Chiawana sophomore Malia Ruud was second at 18.9, while Kennewick junior Haylee Johnson was third at 15.5.

Richland senior Kylee Fox and Hanford junior Lynnea Moran both tied for fourth at 15.4 per game.

▪ Southridge’s boys and girls were the odd teams out in the postseason, while everyone else in the MCC get at least one playoff game.

It’s just the way it worked out for the Suns. Both boys and girls teams were the fourth out of four of the Class 3A teams in the standings, and only the top three 3A teams make the district tourney.

Non-basketball notes

Sunnyside senior Jansyn Carrizales signed a letter of intent recently to continue her college volleyball career, at Carroll College in Montana.

▪ Prosser senior Nehemiah Medrano, who was a standout running back and linebacker for the Mustangs this past fall, signed a letter of intent to play football this coming fall at Eastern Oregon University.

▪ College Place graduate Kenneth Rooks completed the men’s 1-mile run in 3 minutes, 59.65 seconds, last weekend for the BYU indoor track team.

For Rooks, it was a PR time for him, and the sixth-best all-time finish in BYU men’s indoor track history.

This story was originally published February 9, 2023 at 12:59 PM with the headline "2 Tri-Cities teams end basketball season unbeaten. Who to watch in the playoffs."