Spokane Area Class A Teams Leave Few Hours Unfilled Lakeside’s Entries Play First And Last; Medical Lake Meets 1996 Champions
The Lakeside High School basketball teams will have the Tacoma Dome covered from the opening to closing tipoffs on Wednesday’s first day of the State A high school basketball tournaments.
The second-ranked Lakeside girls (22-1) open against unranked Charles Wright Academy (17-5) of Tacoma Wednesday morning at 9. The No. 6 Lakeside boys (18-4) meet unranked Cashmere (18-6) at 9:30 p.m.
Fans of the Northeast A League also can catch a 1:30 matinee when unranked Medical Lake (18-6) meets defending state champion No. 1 La Center (23-0).
“It’s going to be a bloodfest.” said Curt Self, editor-publisher of the Self Guide, a newsletter devoted to state A boys basketball. “From top to bottom, this is the best (boys) tournament we’ve had in 20 years. There are no less than 12 teams that can win.”
Cashmere was the state champ two seasons ago, beating Medical Lake in the title game. Two players, 6-foot-4 junior Jake Kerns (15.8 ppg) and 5-11 seniorJordan Green (10.8 ppg) played on that team.
Cashmere earned a spot to state when it beat No. 8 Omak Saturday night in the North Central District 6 consolation final.
La Center, led by 6-5 senior Derek VanWeerdhulzen and 6-6 junior Dustin VanWeerdhulzen, beat No. 3 Toledo (21-1) by four points in the Southwest District A championship game. La Center had been destroying opponents by an average of 40 points per game. The VanWeerdhulzen brothers average 52 points per game.
“My first reaction was, let’s go over and see what we can do,” Medical Lake coach Dave Olzendam said. “I think our league is a pretty good defensive league. I think we can do it, I really do.”
The boys brackets appears balanced with No. 1 La Center and No. 4 Chelan (21-1) in the top half and No. 2 King’s (21-3) and No. 3 Toledo in the bottom.
The girls draw turned out lopsided. No. 1 Toledo (22-0), No. 2 Lakeside, No. 3 Cascade (21-2) and No. 4 King’s (21-3) are in the top half. If the seeded teams win, Lakeside will meet Cascade on Thursday.
“When I saw Toledo and Cascade in our bracket, my first reaction was ‘Oh… OK,” Lakeside coach Lisa Schultz said. “When the bracket is like it is, your kids are going to have to work their tails off.” , DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: NEA AT STATE A, TACOMA Boys: Medical Lake vs. La Center, 1:30 p.m. Lakeside vs. Cashmere, 9:30 p.m. Girls: Lakeside vs. Charles Wright, 9 a.m.