THE WIAA MIGHT call it the state tournament.
But trust me, the regional round of the Class 2A state basketball bracket felt like just another district playoff.
Take away the big arena, bright lights and exotic location (yes, I’m calling Yakima “exotic”), and it just doesn’t feel very stately.
Port Angeles girls basketball coach Mike Knowles, a veteran of several state tournaments as a head coach and assistant, surely wasn’t buying the new setup.
And he pulled few punches when critiquing the WIAA’s cost-cutting move from a 16-team, double-elimination state tournament to this year’s regional format.
“This wasn’t a state tournament feeling at all,” said Knowles, who last visited state as an assistant to Rider boys coach Erik Lathen in 2007.
“Playing on high school floors, getting the same officials two games in a row . . . that would never happen at a state tournament.
“The WIAA, they are not about kids. They can say all they want, but they are not about kids. You can quote me on that.
“They’re not about kids, they are about money.”
True state experience
Indeed, the greatest argument to be made against the new format is how it denies more high school athletes a true state experience.
As nice as the Mount Tahoma High School gym is — and trust me, it’s as good as they come — it’s certainly no Tacoma Dome or SunDome.
It isn’t even the University of Puget Sound Memorial Fieldhouse, which would easily be a better location for regional games if the WIAA could come up with the cash to use it for a weekend.
Of course, money and poor attendance at state events were cited as the main issues for switching formats.
As anyone who attended Port Angeles’ girls and boys regional games last weekend can attest, however, the WIAA hardly solved the latter problem by switching to the regionals.
The stands were sparsely filled at the Riders’ four games last Friday and Saturday.
“I think it takes away from the efforts of the kids when they work hard all year,” Tumwater girls coach Dave Littleton said of regionals.
“It doesn’t feel like state. In that regard, we’ve got to look at a better way to try and finance that.”
An argument can be made that by whittling down to a field of eight teams in regional competition, the WIAA has returned more prestige to state hoops.
Gone are the days that you’ll see a team with a losing record — like, say, the Black Hills squad the Rider boys knocked off Friday — in the Tacoma Dome, SunDome or Veterans Memorial Arena in Spokane.
The roads to those arenas are simply too difficult under the current format for those teams to make it.
The other bonus of the regional system: District tournament results are finally given the weight they deserve.
District champions get two chances to earn a spot in Tacoma, Yakima or Spokane.
Lower district seeds must earn their way in by beating two playoff teams.
That’s way better than the old system under the 16-team bracket, when only district champions were seeded into state and everyone else (two, three, four and five seeds) was randomly scattered among them.
Of course, if we had it my way, we’d go the way of Illinois and make the whole thing one maddeningly long single-elimination tournament.
Lose, and you’re out.
Illinois doesn’t have the same attendance problems for its basketball playoffs that this state does.
Many games are actually sold out.
I think the urgency of the one-and-done format has something to do with that.
Neah Bay hoops
It seems fitting that the first two teams to reach the Elite Eight from the North Olympic Peninsula both come from Neah Bay.
No other area school has dominated its level of competition quite like the Neah Bay boys and girls since the turn of the millennium.
This season marks the fourth time in five years that both teams have reached the Class 1B state tournament after claiming North Olympic League titles.
The boys are led by 1,000-point scorer Drexler Doherty, a volume shooter who has been the Red Devils’ top offensive threat each of the past three seasons.
If he and his teammates can manage a win in Spokane this week, they will claim Neah Bay’s fourth state trophy since 2000.
Only the Port Townsend boys have managed that many during that time frame.
As for the girls, it appears Lisa Halttunen is building a basketball factory out near Cape Flattery.
The fifth-year head coach, an 1,000-point scorer during her own playing days, has now led the Red Devils to a top eight finish in 1B for the fourth year in a row.
Considering Neah Bay hadn’t even won one girls trophy prior to her arrival, that’s no small accomplishment.
Sharp shooter
Port Angeles junior forward Hayden McCartney snuck up on people this postseason.
After the performances he put up down the stretch of the Roughriders’ playoff run, however, it’s hard to believe he’ll be doing that again next year.
With teams focusing on stopping senior forwards Colin Wheeler and Ian Ward, McCartney blossomed.
First, there was his three 3-pointers late in Port Angeles’ epic double overtime victory at districts over Lindbergh.
Then, there was his second-quarter explosion against Black Hills in Friday’s state regional contest; an eight-minute period that saw him score 11 of the Riders’ 19 points as they went from being down 13-7 to being up 26-17.
And finally, in Port Angeles’ near upset of top-ranked Clover Park, he hit two straight 3s and dished out an assist to fuel a second-quarter run that brought the Riders back in the game.
Later, he hit another 3 in the third to put Port Angeles on top for the first time.
“Hayden is playing at a high level right now,” coach Wes Armstrong said. “Teams aren’t really aware of him, because everyone is so concerned about Colin and Ian.
“And Hayden is hitting big shot after big shot.”
McCartney’s statistics were not gaudy — he averaged 7.4 points and 4.8 rebounds per game — this season.
Once the playoffs came around, however, he absolutely carried the Riders in some critical stretches.
Between the Riders’ last three games, he hit 16 of 22 shots from the field, including 11 of 15 3-point attempts, while scoring 50 points.
It was a natural carry-over for McCartney, who had come up time and again during summer league games this past offseason, according to Armstrong.
“Nothing fazes him,” Armstrong said. “He just has a very calm, clear mind. He’s who you want on the floor when you need someone to step up.”
Luckily for the Riders, they have him for one more year to do just that.
Playing big
At the beginning of the season, the Port Angeles girls basketball team appeared to have one glaring hole: a lack of size.
With just two players in the team’s rotation 5-foot-10 or taller — senior post Taylyn Jeffers (5-10) and junior forward Kiah Jones (6-0) — it seemed as if that might end up being the team’s undoing this year.
Yet throughout much of the season, Port Angeles’ relatively smallish front line had little trouble hanging with bigger teams.
That began with Jeffers down low, who averaged 10.3 rebounds and 8.4 points per game as the Riders’ top low-post presence.
“I can’t beat them in height, so I have to out-muscle them,” Jeffers said. “Playing behind and making them trying to shoot over me [really works].
“They have the height over me, so it’s getting the position to make them have to work around me.”
Jones, meanwhile, gave the Riders a high-post threat who could hit pick-and-pop jumpers, give extra support on the boards and break the press with her ball-handling skills.
Predominantly a perimeter player last season, Jones became a second-team All-Olympic power forward as the team’s No. 2 scorer (10.3 ppg) and second-best rebounder (6.8 rpg).
“She wasn’t really looking forward to being a post player in any way,” Knowles said.
“But once she started playing in there and learning she could score . . . she really enjoyed the role as the season progressed, and fulfilled it really well.”
While the duo struggled at times to keep up with Lynden’s tall front court Friday, it more than held its own against Tumwater in Saturday’s loss.
In the end, the Riders out-rebounded the T-Birds 34-30 despite nearly giving up three inches at the center position.
In that duel, Jeffers ended up with a game-high 15 boards while scoring six points.
“I feel like [Jeffers] was robbed. She was an honorable mention all-league kid and she’s one of the better post players in the [Olympic League],” Knowles said.
“She just dominates the boards. It doesn’t matter who she plays.”
________
Matt Schubert is the outdoors and sports columnist for the Peninsula Daily News. His column regularly appears on Thursdays and Fridays. He can be reached at matt.schubert@peninsuladailynews.com.