It was a good news/bad news kind of weekend for local teams in the regional round of the state basketball tournaments.
So let’s start with the good news.
Cameron Cranston scored 28 points to lead the Union boys basketball team to the 4A state quarterfinals with a 75-50 win over Enumclaw on Saturday in Battle Ground. It will be third consecutive trip to Tacoma for Cranston and the Titans.
On Sunday, the news got even better when the Washington Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association selected Cranston as the 4A state player of the year.
Cranston averaged 19.3 points a game this season in leading the Titans to the 4A Greater St. Helens League championship and the top seed into the 4A state tournament.
Michael Porter Jr. of Nathan Hale was selected as Mr. Basketball for the state of Washington.
Other players of the year were Nate Pryor of West Seattle (3A), Roberto Gittens of Foss (2A), Corey Kispert of King’s (1A), Luke Lovelady of Life Christian (2B) and Trazil Lane of Lummi (1B).
Cranston will be back on the court in Tacoma on Thursday, when Union faces Kennedy Catholic or Glacier Peak at 10:30 a.m. in the 4A state quarterfinals. Union could face Federal Way in a potential semifinal meeting on Friday.
The news was less positive for the other seven local teams in regional play last week. Of those teams, only one was victorious.
Yet, thanks to the new tournament format, there are still six teams alive in the state championship chase.
It means a very busy Wednesday for our reporters, particularly at the Yakima SunDome, site of the 2A and 1A state tournaments.
The fun gets started at 10:30 a.m. when La Center meets Columbia of Burbank in the 1A girls tournament. The winner will face top-seeded Cashmere in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
At 3:45 p.m., we’ll have local teams on both courts in Yakima, facing teams with a hometown edge.
Washougal meets East Valley of Yakima in the 2A girls tournament, with the winner facing Burlington-Edison on Thursday.
On the other court, La Center plays La Salle of Yakima in the 1A boys tournament, with the winner facing King’s of Seattle on Thursday.
At 5:30 p.m., King’s Way Christian will play Warden in the 1A boys tournament. The winner will meet top-seeded Freeman on Thursday.
In the 4A girls tournament in the Tacoma Dome, the Camas girls basketball team will have to get used to late night.
The Papermakers meet Eastlake of Sammamish in a loser-out game at 9 p.m. Wednesday. If Camas wins, the Papermakers will meet Moses Lake in another 9 p.m. game on Thursday.
The WIAA’s new RPI rankings received mixed results in the regional games. Only 62.5 percent of higher-seeded teams won last weekend (60-36). I say “only” because if higher seeds are, in theory, better teams, you’d expect that percentage to be higher.
Higher-seeded girls teams (32-16) fared better than boys teams (28-20).
But even among the RPI successes, there were concerns.
For example, in 4A girls, seven of eight higher-seeded teams won. But the one “upset” involved Central Valley.
Central Valley is the defending 4A state champion that hasn’t lost a game in more than two years, and yet somehow that was only good enough for a No. 5 ranking in the RPI system.
While the new tournament brackets allowed for 12 teams to reach the final tournament sites — as opposed to eight in past seasons — the new brackets will face another test on Wednesday.
That’s when teams that travel all the way to Tacoma or Yakima or Spokane play one game and then go home.
Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor/prep coordinator for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4538, tim.martinez@columbian.com or follow his Twitter handle @360TMart.
