For Openers, Lc Faces Tough Test

The good ol’ boys of the State AAA high school basketball tournament thumbed their noses at one of the newcomers.

Sunday morning in Bellevue, Lewis and Clark, headed to Seattle for the first time in 32 years, was matched up against pre-tournament favorite Sehome, 23-0, for Wednesday’s opener.

“Imagine that,” LC coach Glenn Williams said. After a long pause, he added, “Wow.”

The Tigers, 18-9, play Sehome at 10:30 Wednesday morning at Key Arena.

“It’s better to draw somebody like that than not be drawing anyone at all,” Williams said. “These guys are supposed to be awesome, they’re just blowing people away. Should we even show up?”

The LC game is sandwiched between the games of the Greater Spokane League’s other two state entrants, the Mead and Ferris girls.

Mead (22-3) faces Eastlake (20-7) at 9 a.m. and Ferris (21-5) meets Enumclaw (19-7) at noon in games at the Seattle Center Mercer Arena.

“I don’t even know where Enumclaw is,” Ferris coach Janet Skaife said.

Enumclaw moved up to AAA this year. Eastlake is a third-year school in Redmond.

Should the GSL rivals get past their openers, they would probably have very tough matchups before they could face each other in the semifinals.

Mead is matched with Kent-Meridan (20-4) and Bothell (23-3). K-M is the defending state champion. Ferris’ bracket has Sumner (15-9), making its first-ever appearance, and top-ranked Mountain View of Vancouver (22-0), which lost in the title game last year when the tournament was in the Kingdome.

“I think the top bracket is a little bit heavier,” Mead coach Jeanne Helfer said. “My feeling is a draw is a draw. We’re there and you have to win four.

“At this point, we feel we just have to play. We’re as good as anybody in this tournament but we’re not better than anybody else.”

Helfer has Mead at state for the seventh straight year. Beginning in 1990, the Panthers have finished first, second, first, fourth, third and fifth, winning more than 20 games each season.

Ferris last went to state in 1984, finishing third.

The LC drought was much longer. Though the Tigers have been to state 23 times and won three state titles, their last trip was in 1964 at the end of coach Squinty Hunter’s career. Their last appearance in a title game was in 1958 and their last title was in 1949 when they beat Garfield.

Eisenhower is in the same bracket as LC. The Cadets (18-8) face Foss (20-3) at noon. Big Nine and eastern regional champion Pasco (22-3) meets Mercer Island (18-8) at 6:30.

, DataTimes