Pie Is Sliced Right Eastern Districts Have No More Reason To Complain Than Others

Provincialism is as big a part of the State B tournament as guys named Wright on the radio and 5-foot-10 forwards.

‘Round these parts, the annual talk is about how the Northeast and Southeast districts are given crumbs when the state pie is sliced.

And so the cry goes: Districts 7 and 9 should be given more berths to the state tournament because their teams historically have the greatest success.

True, some cold, hard numbers can prove their point. For instance, of the last 30 teams to play for the boys State B title, 14 came from the Northeast or Southeast.

Yet what can be made of the 1999 tournament, which ended Saturday night with Waterville defeating Evergreen Lutheran 67-60 in overtime?

Draw some conclusions after four days and 26 tournament games.

Eastern Washington teams finished 9-8 at the tourney. Just one eastern entry, St. John-Endicott, placed in the top four.

Can anything be said about a State B tournament that didn’t have an eastern Washington team in the championship game? Know how many times that has happened since the tournament came to Spokane in 1958? Four.

So let’s look at this thing from another angle, such as how someone not from “around here” might see it.

Start with champion Waterville and Pateros, its District 6 neighbor. Pateros placed sixth after a double-overtime loss to SJE Saturday afternoon.

Either Pateros or Waterville would have stayed home if their district’s situation had been similar to 1998. District 6 receives one state berth 50 percent of the time, and ‘98 was one of those years.

Don’t think that Waterville, the best team at the tournament, would have automatically qualified had there been a single berth. Waterville and Pateros split their regular-season series and never met at district. Pateros was the only Class B team to defeat Waterville this year.

Now let’s consider state runner-up Evergreen Lutheran and its district, 1-2-3. The Tri-District has drawn the scorn of eastern teams for years because it gobbles up four to five state berths while recording subpar results at the tourney.

But the Tri-District had developed into a better-than-average group since the mid-1990s. Tacoma Baptist and Darrington paved the way, and new faces such as 1998 champion Chief Leschi and Evergreen Lutheran have followed suit. Three District 1-2-3 teams placed in the top seven this year.

No pure system exists to send the best 16 teams to Spokane every year. Yet judging by Saturday’s final, when Evergreen Lutheran forced OT after trailing by 19 in the third quarter, an entertaining state tournament doesn’t require a stranglehold by local teams.

But for those who make plans one year ahead, locals SJE and Valley Christian should be loaded and prospecting for gold.

And look out for Pateros. Junior Clint Hull finished the tournament with records for steals in a game (8), 3-pointers attempted (56) and made (20) in a tournament, and 179 career points. An average tourney, by his standards, will make him the No. 4 all-time scorer.