The ten-team field has been trimmed to eight in the 2A boys district tournament, while the 1A boys went from five teams to four, in the play-in round of both tournaments on Monday night.
Mount Baker 65, Blaine 54
In the 1A boys play-in contest, the #5 seed Mount Baker Mountaineers, upset the #4 seed Blaine Borderites, 65-54, on the Borderites floor.
The Mountaineers (4-17), who avenged an earlier 18-point loss to the Borderites, will now play at #1 Lynden Christian, Wednesday at 530pm. Blaine finishes the season 4-17.
In the 2A tournament, both games ended up with wild finishes, with #10 Archbishop Murphy advancing with a 55-52 overtime win at #7 Squalicum. Meanwhile, at Burlington, the #7 Burlington-Edison Tigers scored with five seconds to play to eliminate the #8 Sedro-Woolley Cubs, 66-64.
Archbishop Murphy 55, Squalicum 52 (OT)
The Storm may have played their worst three quarters of the season, followed by their best one.
Trailing 44-21 to the Wildcats with eight minutes to play, the Storm reeled off 21 straight points before the Wildcats hit a free throw with 30 seconds left. After a Storm miss, the Wildcats hit another single to take a 46-43 lead, with seven seconds to go.
After a timeout, the Storm had 3.7 seconds to work with and the ball to inbound on the left sidelines. Freshman Hunter Calloway’s inbounds pass went to Marcus Nixon on the right side of the key, who redirected the ball to an open Fabian Singh, a couple steps beyond the arc on the left wing. Singh’s shot hit nothing but net, and tied the score at the buzzer, 46-46. It was Singh’s third 3-pointer of the quarter.
Somehow, after a quarter that must have seemed like it lasted for hours, the Wildcats were able to recover, and eliminate the Storm, 55-52 in overtime. Squalicum finishes the season with a 9-12 record.
The Wildcats (7-14) will travel to Duval on Wednesday, to take on their Wesco rival, #2 Cedarcrest (17-3), with a start time of 6pm. The Red Wolves crushed the Wildcats 94-59, on January 12.
Burlington-Edison 66, Sedro-Woolley 64
After trailing the Cubs for most of the first 28 minutes, the Tigers tied the score at 56-56 with four minutes to go.
However, the Cubs regained a four-point lead with 1:05 to go. That’s when the Tigers’ Logan Heigert converted two transition lay ins, the second being a 3-point play, giving the Tigers a 64-63 lead with 36 seconds left.
Isaac Johnson then hit the second of two free throws for the Cubs to tie the game ten seconds later.
Working for the final shot, the Tigers worked the ball to the left wing to Madden Whitlock, who drove the gap in the Cubs zone defense. He drew an extra defender, and flipped the ball to an open, and 6-foot-8, Timophey Feskov, who laid in the winner.
The Cubs season ends with a record of 9-12.
The Tigers improved to 12-11, and travel to play at #1 Lynden (17-4), at 7pm on Wednesday. The Lions beat the Tigers 69-49 on January 12.
1A Boys
Tournament continues with semifinal games on Wednesday. Mount Baker at Lynden Christian, and #3 Meridian at #2 Nooksack Valley.
The Pioneers and Trojans are both 11-10 on the season, with the Pioneers owning a 67-55 win over the Trojans, at home, on January 16.
This game will be interesting in discerning the adjustments the teams will make from the outcome of their first meeting.
The winners will play for a state berth, Saturday at 330pm. The losers will play an elimination game at noon on Saturday. Those games will be at Lynden’s Jake Maberry Gym.
The champion on Saturday can take a breath. While the championship loser and the consolation winner will meet with the second state berth on the line, Friday, February 16, also at Lynden.
The girls 1A tournament will have their games at Lynden on Saturday with games at 145pm and 445pm.
2A Boys
Along with Archbishop Murphy at Cedarcrest and Burlington-Edison at Lynden, the 2A boys will have two other first-round games on Wednesday.
The Seahawks overwhelmed the Mariners 101-45 on January 16.
Lakewood has beaten Bellingham twice this season. The Cougars won a non-league game at home on January 6, 80-64. Then they won the conference match up, 65-55, at Bellingham on January 15.
The Archbishop Murphy-Cedarcrest winner will play the Sehome-Anacortes winner on Friday, 445pm at Mount Vernon High School. That will be followed by the Bellingham-Lakewood winner against the Burlington-Lynden winner at 630pm. Those are semifinal games.
The losing teams will play elimination games, at the higher seed, also on Friday.
This tournament promises to be a real fingernail-biter, as Lynden, Anacortes, and Cedarcrest are three of the top handful of 2A teams in the state, and only two will advance.
But they better not only have eyes on each other, as there are plenty of capable teams.
3A Boys
Ferndale (7-13) will play on Wednesday at Marysville-Getchell (15-5) at 6PM in a play-in game. Ferndale will see familiar surroundings as they lost to the Chargers, 57-40 on December 2, at MGHS. The winner advances to play at Arlington at 7pm on Friday.
Mount Vernon (18-2) will play as the third game of the day at MVHS on Friday, at 8pm, following the two 2A semifinal games. The Bulldogs will take on the winner of Wednesday’s game which has Stanwood (7-10) at Everett (12-9). The Bulldogs defeated Everett, 61-51 on December 1.
~ Ted House
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