Gsl Shoots It Out For Regional Spots Today’s Losers Will Stay Home

The basketball season for eight Greater Spokane League teams takes on the intensity of the NCAA Tournament today when the league playoffs open at the Coliseum.

There are four games in the District 8 Tournament, with the winners being guaranteed four more games and the season ending for today’s losers.

In girls games, Ferris (16-4) plays Gonzaga Prep (10-10) at 3:45 p.m. and Central Valley (10-10) meets rival University (11-9) at 7:15.

For the boys, it’s Ferris (13-7) against Rogers (9-9) at 5:30 and CV (10-10) facing G-Prep (12-8) at 9.

The winners join the top two teams from the regular season - Mead and Lewis and Clark in the boys, Shadle Park and Mead in the girls - for games on Thursday and Friday to determine seeding for the double-elimination Eastern AAA Regional Tournament next week.

What might transpire today is anyone’s guess. In three of the matchups, the teams split during the GSL season. Only the Ferris girls had a sweep, but Prep certainly cut its losses, losing 79-42 in the first meeting and just 59-51 in the second.

University won its first meeting with CV 42-39 and lost the second 44-43.

The Rogers boys also made a big comeback, losing to Ferris 63-38 in the first round and winning 65-62 in overtime in the second, the Pirates’ ending a 27-game regular-season losing streak against the Saxons. The CV boys edged Prep 80-78 in double overtime the first time, but lost 56-50 last Thursday.

Overtime reached epidemic proportions during the regular season among the boys. Nine games went into overtime, the most in the 19 seasons of the nine-team GSL.

Never before has one team played four OT games in the 16-game league schedule. This year, CV and Ferris played four each. G-Prep had three and Mead, LC and Rogers two apiece.

And just to add spice to districts, the only overtime game that didn’t involve a playoff team was a Ferris win over Shadle Park.

Shadle finished two games behind Rogers in the playoff race, thanks to two losses to the Pirates. It was the first time in the 19 years of the GSL that Rogers swept the Highlanders.

There was only one overtime game for the girls, but quality made up for a lack of quantity. Ferris edged CV in triple overtime.

With so many young teams in the GSL, district games are important. Last year, the Shadle Park girls eked into district by winning a tiebreaker game in OT then won their firstround district game - in OT. The Highlanders used the four extra games as a springboard to make state, where they just missed a trophy, and motivation to a 17-3 record this season.

Shadle Park ended Mead’s 32-game GSL winning streak Thursday to tie the Panthers for the league championship. The Highlanders get the top seed into district because they won the second meeting between the two teams.

At district, the top two seeds play Thursday with the No. 1 seed (Mead for the boys) facing the lowest surviving seed from tonight’s games and the No. 2 seed (LC for the boys) facing the higher remaining seed.

On Friday, the winners of Thursday’s games play for the top two seeds to regional and the losers play for the third and fourth seeds. Those will be the last GSL games in the Coliseum.

In 16 GSL games, 17 boys averaged in double figures and nine were juniors, all in the top 14 and seven in the top 10. Just three of the top 17 are not involved in the playoffs.

Only 10 girls averaged in double figures, half are seniors, two are sophomores and only one is not in the playoffs.

With the Mead boys winning their first outright title (they tied with Ferris in 1988) and the Mead girls tying Shadle Park (the fourth title for the Panthers, sixth for the Highlanders), it marked the sixth time boys and girls teams from the same school won or shared league titles. The last was Ferris in 1984. The others were Shadle Park in 1977, ‘81 and ‘82 and G-Prep in 1983.

MEMO: This is a sidebar which appeared with story: DISTRICT 8 TOURNAMENTS All games at Coliseum

Boys Ferris vs. Rogers 5:30 p.m. Central Valley vs. G-Prep 9

Girls Ferris vs. Gonzaga Prep 3:45 Central Valley vs. U-Hi 7:15