The way the brackets line up, don't be shocked
to see Brewster, Bellevue Christian in final again

By SCOTT SANDSBERRY
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Last year's Class 1A boys basketball championship game was a rarity: a down-to-the-wire thriller between the two teams generally presumed to be the best in the tournament.

So often, the "best" teams don't reach the championship game, because some gritty upstart plays its best game of the year and knocks them off early in the tourney. And, even more often than that, the title contest turns into a one-sided affair.

Not last year. Brewster and Bellevue Christian both came in highly touted, and their final more than lived up to expectations: BC's Vikings erased a five-point lead in the final minute of regulation and then won it in overtime.

It was the only the fifth OT championship game in the tournament's 47-year history, and only the sixth final in the past 22 years to be decided by five points or less.

And get ready.

Because it could happen again.

Brewster's top-ranked Bears, led by Michael Taylor's 25.6 points per game, are a good bet for another title-game tilt.   SANDY SUMMERS/Yakima Herald-Republic file

Brewster (21-1) and Bellevue Christian (20-2) come into the 2006 tournament at the SunDome ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, and any loss by either one of those teams against anybody else in the field would rate as a monumental upset.

The Vikings' only losses came in close games against The Bears' only loss came, by a 62-58 score in their season opener, to none other than Bellevue Christian.

Late this season, BC coach Mike Downs found it interesting to see his team supplanted atop the poll by Brewster -- a team his Vikings had beaten 62-58 in the first week of the season -- after having lost only in close games to Inglemoor (ranked No. 5 in Class 4A) and King's (No. 5 in 2A).

"It's funny to see the polls," Downs said at the time. "You'd think people would take (the Vikings' über-difficult nonleague schedule) into consideration. But let (Brewster) have the target -- that's fine with me."

Fittingly, the two favorites are in opposite halves of the bracket, and each faces roughly the same degree of difficulty in its road to the final.

The Vikings open against a 22-2 Toledo team with little height, would likely face dangerous Friday Harbor (17-3) in the second round and then, in the semis, either defensive-minded Colfax (19-4) or one of two foes, Granger (19-4) or River View (18-6), whose outside shooting make them very dangerous.

Brewster figures to be the hefty favorite to escape its quarterfinal -- the Bears are in with Ilwaco (13-10), Freeman (14-10) and Cascade Christian (17-5).

But, should they advance as expected to the semis, the Bears figure to run into either Overlake (17-5), which has a talented 6-foot-8 post in Aaron Richardson-Osgood, or third-ranked Zillah (22-2), an athletic bunch of 6-1 leapers who can run all night.

The Bears, on the other hand, conceivably won't have to run at night until Friday. They're in Wednesday's morning bracket, with a 10:30 tipoff against Ilwaco.

And that doesn't bother Brewster coach Tim Taylor a bit.

"I like playing in the morning, especially if you can win," Taylor says. "You kind of play later and later every day. We had that a couple years ago and it worked out real well. We actually had the 9 a.m. that one year (2003), and we played the next day at 4, then at 7, then at 9. Hopefully that will happen this year."

Well, up to a point: This year, the boys championship game will be played at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, followed by the girls at 9.

And if the boys final is a rematch of last year, well, suffice it to say that the girls will have quite an act to follow.