As it often does, just when things appeared their darkest, some light shined through.
That was the case for our local high school basketball teams last weekend.
On Friday, eight Clark County boys and girls basketball teams were one win away from advancing to the Class 4A or 3A regionals.
But by the end of the night Friday, those eight teams had gone 1-7.
Luckily for those teams, Friday’s games were not elimination games, and Saturday brought more games and the chance at redemption.
On Saturday, the seven teams that lost Friday went 5-2 — which is pretty darn good as the best they could have fared was 6-1 (two local teams were facing off on Saturday).
So the list that began a couple of weeks ago with 13 local boys basketball teams and 12 girls teams alive in the postseason has now been whittled down to seven boys teams and three girls teams.
All three girls teams have clinched regional berths. Four of the seven boys teams are assured of regional spots, with at least one more local team assured of joining them and possibly two.
Even though regional berth have been clinched, there are still games to be played Monday in the 4A and 3A bi-district tournament.
Normally, these seeding games don’t carry a whole lot of weight, other than giving teams the opportunity to say “Yippee! We finished third, instead of fourth.”
But for some teams, winning and losing Monday means the difference between playing in a regional in Kirkland or Spokane, Bellevue instead of Richland.
And as most Clark County teams have already done their fare share of traveling (the kind that happens on the bus, not on the basketball court), that’s a significant difference.
So let’s take a look at the schedule of games Monday and Tuesday, and what winning and losing will mean to local teams.
Boys teams
All boys regional games are Friday. All regional games are win and go to state, lose and you’re done (a novel concept).
CLASS 4A: Evergreen (15-8) faces No. 10 Kentwood (18-7) at 2 p.m. Monday at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma. The winner will play No. 4 Garfield of Seattle (18-5) at Juanita High School in Kirkland. The loser will play the winner of No. 1 Davis (19-2) and No. 3 Central Valley (20-3) at 8 p.m. at Spokane Falls Community College.
Union (17-6) faces Federal Way (15-7) at 4 p.m. Monday at Mount Tahoma. The winner will play Jackson of Everett (18-5) at 6 p.m. at Kent-Meridian High School. The loser will face the winner between Curtis of University Place (19-6) and Olympia (20-4) at 8 p.m. at Auburn High School.
CLASS 3A: Mountain View (18-7) faces Foss of Tacoma (17-6) at 2 p.m. Monday at Franklin Pierce High School in Tacoma. The winner meets No. 10 Seattle Prep (21-5) at 8 p.m. at Bellevue Community College. The loser meets No. 1 Kamiakin of Kennewick (21-1) at 8 p.m. at Richland High School.
CLASS 2A: Washougal (14-9) faces North Thurston of Lacey (17-6) at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at W.F. West High School in Chehalis. The winner faces the loser between No. 9 Sumner (21-5) and No. 7 White River of Buckley (21-5) at 6 p.m. at Mount Tahoma High School. The loser is eliminated.
CLASS 1A: Ridgefield (18-5), the District 4 champion, is the only local team that already knows exactly where it will be playing next weekend. The Spudders will face Cascade Christian of Puyallup (16-7) at 8 p.m. at W.F. West HS.
CLASS 1B: Columbia Adventist faces King’s Way Christian (13-7) at noon Monday at Montesano High School. The winner plays Lummi of Bellingham (14-5) at 6 p.m. at Mountlake Terrace High School. That is unless Columbia Adventist wins, then we might expect the game to tip off earlier, perhaps 3 p.m. The CAA-King’s Way loser is out.
Girls teams
All girls regionals are on Saturday.
CLASS 4A: No. 5 Skyview (22-3) plays Bethel of Spanaway (15-9) at 6 p.m. Monday at Stadium High School in Tacoma. The winner plays No. 3 Lake Stevens (22-1) at 4 p.m. at Kent-Meridian High School. The loser will face the winner between No. 2 Mount Rainier (23-1) or No. 8 Federal Way (21-3) at 6 p.m. at Auburn High School.
CLASS 3A: Top-ranked Prairie (22-1) plays No. 3 Wilson of Tacoma (20-2) at 4 p.m. Monday at the ShoWare Center in Kent. The winner faces Juanita of Kirkland (21-5) at 6 p.m. at Rogers High School in Puyallup. The loser faces No. 5 Cleveland of Seattle (19-6) at 4 p.m. at Rogers HS.
Camas (18-8) faces No. 6 Lakes of Lakewood (20-4) at 2 p.m. Monday at Clover Park High School. The winner faces No. 4 Franklin of Seattle (21-3) at 6 p.m. at Bellevue Community College. The loser plays No. 2 Kamiakin (22-0) at 6 p.m. at Richland High School.
Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor/prep coordinator for The Columbian. He can be reached by phone at (360) 735-4538 or email at tim.martinez@columbian.com
