Five county teams to play in regionals Saturday

Garth Meyer, Gazette Reporter | Feb 27, 20200

Regional round basketball games will be played around the state Saturday with five county teams still alive.

The 2B Colfax boys are the no. 9 seed, set to meet no. 16 Oroville at University High School in Spokane for an elimination game at 2 p.m.

At stake is a berth in state at Spokane Arena.

For the 2B Colfax girls, the no. 12 seed, plays no. 13 Brewster at University High School at 12 p.m.

The winner advances to state, another elimination game.

The Colfax boys beat Kettle Falls last Saturday in Spokane 69-57, to take third place in the Northeast 2B District tournament, advancing to regionals.

Both Colfax and Kettle Falls had already secured a berth to advance, making it a seeding game.

The Bulldogs' John Lustig scored 23 points and got 12 rebounds in the victory while Blake Holman had 20 points and Hunter Claassen six points and 13 assists. Lane Gingerich scored nine points.

Also Saturday, the Colfax girls played Liberty in the Northeast 2B district final and lost 44-20. Colfax made just six of 54 attempts from the field in the game.

1B BOYS

On Feb. 21 in Walla Walla, another thing on the line for Oakesdale and Garfield-Palouse in the 1B District Nine championship game was a likely guarantee to play at state at Spokane Arena.

With the way the brackets played out last Sunday, Oakesdale came away with a no. 8 seed – to play no. 1 Odessa at West Valley High School in Spokane, the two teams playing for who gets a bye in the first round at state. Game time is 12 p.m. Saturday.

For Garfield/Palouse, they came away from distrtricts with the no. 11 seed in regionals, to play no. 14 Chief Kitsap Academy of Poulsbo in an elimination game.

The game will be at University High School in Spokane 4 p.m. Saturday. The winner goes to Spokane Arena for the first round at state.

1B GIRLS

For the girls, the Colton-less 1B regionals bracket for the first time in 13 years features Pomeroy at no. 1 and Oakesdale at no. 3. Both are guaranteed to play at state at Spokane Arena.

Pomeroy will first meet no. 8 Wellpinit Saturday in Richland, while Oakesdale plays no. 6 Yakama Tribal at West Valley in Spokane. Game time for the Nighthawks is 2 p.m.

The winners of these games get a bye in the first round at state.

1B STATE TOURNAMENT ROAD SHORTER

The road to the state tournament for 1B boys basketball teams is shorter this year, due to a shifting number of allocations to regionals, because of changing league sizes.

Last year, the District Nine boys had one allocation to regionals, meaning only one team would advance past the district tournament.

In that situation, a district has the opportunity to “glue” with a nearing district such as District Seven or District Five, to join with their allocations. This meant that, in 2019, by gluing, District Nine risked the chance of sending zero boys teams to regionals – in order for the chance for two of its teams to make it to state.

This meant that after the district tournament last year, Oakesdale and Garfield/Palouse both needed to win two elimination games in order to make to it Spokane Arena.

This year, since District Nine is back to two allocations, both teams need to win just one game to make it to state.

Incidentally, the top-8 seeds in the 2020 regional round are already guaranteed to play at the Arena in the first round of state. Oakesdale, as the no. 8 seed, has that slot. Garfield/Palouse, the no. 11 seed, has to beat no. 14 Chief Kitsap Academy Saturday in an elimination game in order to make it to the Arena.