The Bs

Whitman County: Tekoa-Oakesdale’s boys are in first place, but the basketball standings most likely will change as the regular season comes to an end. LaCrosse-Washtucna is the biggest threat to T-O (13-2, 7-2). The Tigercats (10-3, 6-3), tied with Asotin (13-4, 6-3) for second place, beat T-O 56-44 earlier this month and crushed the Panthers 74-33 on Jan. 14. Don’t count out Garfield-Palouse, either. The Vikings (10-5, 5-3) are 11/2 games behind T-O and beat L-W 64-62 on Jan. 15. On the girls’ side, Holli Holbrook continues to lead first-place Gar-Pal (14-1, 7-1) and the league in scoring, averaging 19.3 ppg.

Bi-County: Both Liberty basketball teams sit in third place (both 9-5, 9-3), but will need big weeks to stay there. Friday night the Lancers play at Lind-Ritzville, whose boys (14-0, 12-0) are undefeated and whose girls (7-7, 7-5) are improving. Saturday night Liberty’s girls travel to Sprague-Harrington (12-2, 11-1), which sits a half-game ahead of Almira/Coulee-Hartline for the lead. Tuesday night Liberty heads to ACH, which has a dangerous boys team (7-6, 6-5), and the second-place girls (11-2, 10-1).

Panorama: Wellpinit at Curlew on Friday night could have ramifications on both the boys and girls basketball side. If Wellpinit (9-7, 7-4) wins the boys game, it would move into a tie for second in the North with Curlew (11-5, 8-3). Wellpinit would win that tiebreaker, as it beat Curlew 66-61 in early December. Wellpinit’s girls (10-6, 7-4) need a win to stay in third place in the North, and Curlew’s girls (15-1, 10-1) need to win to hold off Inchelium (12-4, 9-2) for first.

-J.D. Larson and Jessica Brown