State 2B girls: Reardan sets sights on first championship since 2013

The girls basketball tradition at Reardan is a rich one: six state titles, plus a couple of more runner-up finishes and 20 appearances at state, second most in the 2B classification.

Still, it’s been a while: Reardan’s last title came at the end of a three-peat in 2013, which was also when the program last played at state.

This year’s team is setting out to restore the program’s tradition – and it starts with its defense.

“Defense has been our mantra all year,” Reardan coach Bob Swannack said. “We have kids who can score, but we’re just playing defense as a team.”

Swannack said he is more “old-school” in his focus on defense, teaching kids to box out and rebound. But he said he recognizes that players need to have offensive freedom: “I have some kids who can score from all over the place.”

“They understand concepts and tendencies and pay attention to why we do things in practice,” Swannack said. “The kids have embraced it.”

Fourth-seeded Reardan (22-2) earned a bye into Thursday after defeating No. 5 Napavine (19-7), the defending champion, 53-36.

“We were physical, and the girls played hard,” Swannack said.

Still, the path ahead for Reardan is a daunting one. Should they get past the winner of Wednesday’s game between No. 11 Columbia of Burbank (18-7) or No. 6 Mount Vernon Christian (19-4), the Screaming Eagles would potentially face No. 8 Northwest Christian (20-4) and then No. 3 Brewster (21-4) or No. 2 Adna (22-2). They could also face No. 1 Rainier (20-4), which had won nine in a row before losing to Northwest Christian last weekend.

One of Reardan’s two losses came on Jan. 24 to Northwest Christian; the other was to Brewster on Dec. 10.

Reardan is the highest ranked of the four Northeast B teams among the 12 left in the tournament. That doesn’t include 19-game winner Davenport and 17-game winner Freeman, which were both knocked out in the district tournament.

In Wednesday’s loser-out games, No. 10 Liberty (20-7) plays No. 7 Cle Elum-Roslyn (18-6), and No. 12 Colfax (14-13) plays Napavine.

“There are a lot of teams in our conference that could be in the tournament still today that had to go home,” Swannack said. “We’re battle -tested.”