Freeman, Bellevue Christian, Napavine
all could challenge two-time champ Brewster

By SCOTT SANDSBERRY
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

After two years of all Brewster, all the time, the matter of who's going to win this week's Class 1A basketball tournament in the SunDome is once again a multiple-choice question.

Not to say that the answer isn't still Brewster.

"They've got the experience; they've got the players. Somebody still has to knock them off," said Toledo coach Scott Merzoian. "I haven't had a chance to see Brewster at full strength, so I always look to them to be the team to beat -- still."

Actually, Merzoian's team has already beaten Brewster this year in the SunDome, at January's Tourneytown.com Shootout. But Brewster was missing four players in that game, including all-state junior Michael Taylor.

Now No. 5 Brewster (20-3) and No. 4 Toledo (20-3) -- barring first-round upsets -- could be playing in the second round, both at full strength.

"Obviously everybody's going to look to us playing them the second game," said Brewster coach Tim Taylor. "But we're not going to approach it that way. It is tempting to think about that, knowing we didn't have all our guys last time we played them. They've got the great player" -- UW-bound, 6-foot-8 center Artem Wallace -- "and the good role players, and obviously we're familiar with them.

"But we're just worried about (first-round opponent) Burbank right now. I'll tell you what, though -- that bottom bracket is loaded. Napavine, Bellevue Christian, Freeman. That's tough."

Indeed. That's the top three ranked teams in the most recent AP state poll: No. 1 Bellevue Christian (20-2), No. 2 Freeman (21-2) and No. 3 Napavine (19-4, including three wins over
Toledo). And since Napavine and Bellevue Christian could meet in the second round -- with a probable matchup with Freeman in the semifinals -- those two teams face arguably the toughest road to the title.

"We're focused and confident and not shying away from the fact that we'd like to win it all," said Bellevue Christian Mike Downs, whose team's only two losses came to out-of-state opponents.

"We have two good defenders in Jeff (Downs) and Nate (Hendricks). I really like our chances against a team like Napavine, because we can definitely throw two guys at their two good scorers (Tyson Sturza and Loren Bluhm) to neutralize them. And we've got three scorers.

"Freeman's a different story. They're physical, well-disciplined, they know how to win, they're deep. That'll definitely be a test. But that's what I told my wife: We knew we would have to beat Freeman at some point to win it -- whether it's the third or the fourth game, you have to beat them sometime."

Freeman, meanwhile, has won 19 straight and hasn't lost to a 1A team all year.

"For years we've been saying that the big thing is to get to state, then if you get to state, then to get a trophy," Freeman coach Mike Thacker said before the bracket was announced. "Now, we've been talking about this being the year we should be in the championship game."

A lot of coaches are saying the same thing about Thacker's team.

"I think Freeman, Bellevue Christian and Brewster have to be the favorites. After that, well ..." La Conner coach Scott Novak said, then recalled the 2003 tournament, the last one the Braves made it to the tournament.

"Two years ago, Brewster and Seattle Christian were definitely the upper two teams, and there were maybe four or five teams that could maybe beat them and then the other teams that could maybe beat those four or five but not the top two.

"I think, this year, all the teams are beatable."

So who's going to win? A favorite or a long shot? What about a Seattle Christian (18-5), which played all year in a 3A-2A league (Nisqually) and had to win back-to-back-to-back loser-out games to get here?

Or Seattle Christian's first-round opponent, Zillah (18-5), which looked great in beating White Swan by 13 points in the SCAC District final?

What about La Conner, which won 19 straight before losing in the Tri-District final to Bellevue Christian? The Braves actually led the No. 1 Vikings by three points at halftime.

Or what about Toledo, which has beaten everybody in its path except Napavine? What about a team with a few losses that could get on a roll, like White Swan (16-7), or Cascade Christian (16-6) or even Oroville (16-8), whose senior guard Dustin Davis torched Brewster for 42 points in a district game?

"Sometimes when you get a dark horse in there, that's worse than playing against a favorite," Thacker said. "Any time that gets on a roll, especially at the state tournament ... that's the thing you really have to guard against, being on the wrong end of a run.

"I think this is going to be a very interesting tournament."