GSL teams facing improving CBL

The Greater Spokane League would like nothing better than a repeat of last year’s ConAgra/Lamb Weston 4A regional basketball outcome tonight.

GSL boys teams swept all four first-night games in 2006, assuring themselves two berths to state. The girls won three out of four.

Can it happen again? Don Van Lierop, coach of unbeaten Ferris, was non-committal about the boys’ chances.

“I thought they (Columbia Basin League teams) played all right this weekend,” he said. “I’ve been down there several times and you could tell they’ve improved the last few weeks.”

Still, Van Lierop likes his team’s chances against Moses Lake in what figures to be an uptempo game.

Lewis and Clark and University girls, who finished first and third at state last year, should have the upper hand in their home games.

Both coaches, Jim Redmon and Mark Stinson, said essentially the same thing.

“I strongly feel from what we’ve seen on tape that our intensity and overall basketball sense is better,” LC’s Redmon said.

Three games tonight among the eight being played hold the key in particular if the GSL is to gain a first-night edge. Two involve Mead on the road.

The Panthers boys, second in the league but third in district, are in Wenatchee and have a better record. The girls travel to Moses Lake, where Chiefs’ scoring leader Carly Noyes will find herself eye-to-eye with another 6-foot-5 post, Alexis Olgard.

The third game, at Shadle Park, pits the Highlanders girls against regular-season CBL leader Pasco. Shadle was third in the GSL and second in district. Pasco wound up third in district after losing to Eisenhower in the first round.