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Yes, Brewster vs. Seattle Christian, No. 1 vs. No. 2, could happen on Saturday.

There’s only one problem. One of them might not get there.

Actually, neither could get there; that’s the beauty of sports, after all, that the games still have to be played before the winners can be declared. But Brewster (24-0), led by reigning 1A state player of the year David Pendergraft and featuring one of the most capable lineups in tournament history, would appear to have a fairly obstacle-free road to the final.

Not that Brewster coach Tim Taylor would admit to such a thing.

“I know everybody’s kind of waiting for that (Brewster-Seattle Christian) game,” Taylor said. “But I can’t be talking about that one. We’ve had a tough time getting past the second round the last couple of years.”

Seattle Christian, on the other hand, may have a tough time getting past the first round.

The Warriors (22-1) open against Kettle Falls, a team whose 21-6 record is deceiving since the Bulldogs were missing star center Cody Slater for nearly half the season. Even if Seattle Christian gets by Kettle Falls, it would face the winner of the Freeman-LaConner game, and Freeman (23-4) is loaded.

“For us to play Brewster in the championship, you have to win three straight. The only way you can win three straight is if you win one straight,” Seattle Christian coach Roger DeBoer said.

“The only way we can do that is if we beat a team that slapped us around this summer.”

That was in the Great Eight summer tournament, hosted by Seattle Christian, in which Kettle Falls knocked off the Warriors and then lost to Brewster in the championship.

The Bulldogs have fallen to Brewster twice since, by 13 points in a Christmas tournament -- with Slater sidelined with a broken bone in his shooting hand that still bothers him -- and again at regionals, when Slater missed a quarter of the game with a deep gash in the head caused by an errant elbow.

“Brewster’s pretty darn tough,” Kettle Falls coach Steve Kroiss said. “I believe we’re a contender, but I think we’d have to play pretty well. We haven’t been very consistent lately.”

Part of that might be because the Bulldogs have been battling a flu bug since early February. “I haven’t had a full group of kids practicing in over three weeks,” Kroiss said.

Freeman coach Mike Thacker, speaking prior to Sunday morning’s tournament bracket draw, lamented the difficult tournament roads facing his team in recent years.

“We’ve had buzzard luck with that first-round game,” Thacker said. “Last year we had (eventual champion) King’s. Three years ago we had Chief Leschi, and they were weird to try to scout because nobody had seen them. We ended up winning, but it took everything out of us to win it, and then in the second round we had Seattle Christian.” Same thing this year: The Scotties could face Seattle Christian in the second round.

Which, of course, makes it that much of a tougher draw for DeBoer’s Warriors. “That’s the beautiful thing about a tournament draw -- sometimes you get a favorable draw and sometimes you don’t. We’ve been on both sides of that. To truly be a state champion, you have to beat the best teams.

“And we’re going to have a chance to stack up with the best, because to get there we’re going to have to beat a lot of awfully good teams.”

One of those teams might well be White Swan (18-5), which found itself in a quarter-bracket with Wednesday opponent Winlock (17-6), Goldendale (14-10) and Orcas Island (15-9). If the Cougars survive their first two games, they’ll find themselves in the semifinals against the survivor of that Seattle Christian-Freeman-Kettle Falls-LaConner bunch.

“You don’t want to think too far ahead, but it’s definitely one of the better draws we’ve had,” said White Swan coach Ray Funk, whose team is coming in on the heels of league and district titles.

“My first year at state (1999) we drew Brewster, and they were No.1, and my second year we drew King’s and I think they were No. 1. Definitely, at this point, you talk about getting into winnable games, and we definitely match up with Winlock.”

Not in terms of size, though. The Cardinals have four 6-4 players in their starting lineup.

“I think we got a great draw. Last year we didn’t,” said Winlock coach Gary Viggers, whose team went two-and-out in 2002. “We’re really happy with what we got this year. They’re small and quick and they like to run. We’re huge. And we’ve got big guys who can handle the ball. I hope they (the Cougars) do press us.”

Viggers will almost certainly get his wish on that one. Just as a lot of casual basketball fans will get their wish if Seattle Christian and Brewster both make it through their brackets for a rematch of their regular-season game at the University of Washington’s Hec Edmundson Pavilion.

In that Dec. 14 game, the Warriors actually jumped out to a 31-16 lead midway through the second quarter before losing 63-55. After that game, DeBoer noted, “They’re the team to beat. Everybody else is just battling for second.”

In three days, of course, they could be playing again ... for first.

Provided they get past the obstacles in their way.

“If God blesses us with a 4-0 record next week,” DeBoer says, “we’ll know we’ve done it the hard way. It’ll be that much more of a reward if it ends up going that way.”

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