She’s only a freshman and she’s playing in her first state tournament, but there’s a reason Zillah’s ROSEBUD GUTHIRE isn’t playing like she’s a bit nervous: She’s been playing basketball for nine years, and with all of the traveling teams she’s played on, she’s actually been on a basketball stage much bigger than this.

“I was fortunate to get a lot of opportunities,” Guthrie said after her solid six-point, eight-rebound, three-block, four-steal, two-assist performance in the Leopards’ 49-45 upset of Lake Roosevelt.

Like playing AAU nationals in California. Much bigger than any state tournament, right?

“Oh, this is the biggest by far. It’s huge,” she said. “I thought I would be really nervous with the crowd and everything, but it’s been a lot of fun. We’re really playing together right now.”

And, Friday night, playing for a berth in the state championship game.

OVER AND OUT: Colfax coach PHIL HERGERT has coached his teams to more than 300 victories over more than 20 seasons, the last five of those years at Colfax. But he told his team before coming to the SunDome that he would be retiring from coaching after the 2006 state tournament. The Bulldogs had no luck in extending his stay, going two-and-out. ... OVERLAKE’s girls also went two-and-out, but they certainly didn’t go away empty-handed. Their team host was Brent
Hodson of Parry Jewelers, who created and gave to each team member a necklace with an owl emblem, the team’s mascot. ... Another team that went home after two games was NAPAVINE, which may wish it never came, since it will leave with three dubious records. The Tigers set a tournament mark for lowest losing score with 19 on Wednesday against Friday Harbor, then lost 39-28 to Southwest rival
Toledo, giving Napavine two more tourney records — total points scored in a
tournament and lowest scoring average for a tournament.