Area Top Seeds Draw Mixed Bag Chewelah Faces Tough Bracket; Lakeside Girls Gain Easier Half

No. 1 seeds from the Northeast A League face very different paths when the WIAA/U.S. Bank State A basketball tournament begins Wednesday as the draw was announced Sunday morning.

Play will continue through Saturday in the Tacoma Dome.

The Chewelah Cougars boys (19-2), ranked second in the state, face the Omak Pioneers (17-9) at 10:30 a.m. From there it gets tougher for the Cougars because top-ranked LaCenter (21-1), fifth-rated King’s (20-3) and No. 6 Connell (19-4) are also in their half of the draw.

The path looks much easier for the Lakeside Eagles girls (21-1), who are ranked fourth in state. The Eagles face the unranked LaCenter Wildcats (17-6) at 5 p.m. and only have two other ranked teams in their half of the bracket, No. 2 Connell (21-2) and No. 5 Cascade (21-3).

Connell and Cascade play each other in the first round, so the earliest Lakeside could face either of them is in the semifinals.

The No. 2 seeds from the NEA, the Newport Grizzlies girls and the Lakeside boys, face tough first-round opponents. The Grizzlies (18-6) meet No. 1-ranked and undefeated Lynden Christian (24-0) at 10:30 a.m.

If Newport pulls off the upset, it’s likely that No. 3-ranked Foster will be waiting. Seventh-ranked Goldendale (17-3), ninth-ranked Castle Rock (16-5) and 10th-ranked Blaine (20-4) are also in the Grizzlies half of the draw.

Unranked Lakeside (15-8) takes on ninth-ranked Adna (20-5) and 7-foot-0 post Jeff Ellis at 9:30 p.m. Third-ranked Okanogan (20-1) and fourth-ranked Zillah (19-2) are the other ranked teams in Lakeside’s half of the draw.

, DataTimes