By SCOTT SANDSBERRY
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

A time-tested strategy in distance running is that, when you pass the person in front of you, make the big move. Don't creep past. Be the freight train: Blow past.

Well, JEFFREY DOWNS of BELLEVUE CHRISTIAN does basketball, not track, but he can definitely go the distance — and, on Friday, he made his move in a very big way.

Downs came into Friday's quarterfinal against King's with 261 career points, 21 shy of the record 282 total rung up by CHRIS FAIDLEY — of, coincidentally, King's. If the Knights could hold Downs under 22 points and knock BC off, they would keep their 2004 grad in the record book.

Fat chance. Downs had the record before the game was 1 1/2 quarters old. He came out smokin', shooting 10-for-12 from the field (and 5-for-7 on 3-pointers) en route to 28 first-half points.

"I was tearing up on the sideline, just watching he was doing, seeing that as a dad. Today, I was just a dad," said Jeff's father and coach, MIKE DOWNS. "I was just so proud of my son, the way he played."

The elder Downs was still red-eyed in the locker room, and not just for what his son had accomplished. He was nearly speechless after watching his players destroy a very good King's team, 79-38, a day after dropping a heartbreaking loss to Brewster and losing the chance for their third straight state title.

"I can't even put into words how incredibly impressed I am with the character they showed," Mike Downs said. "Not a player was down in the mouth about yesterday. They came back with their heads high. To me, that's what life is all about — my wife's battling cancer, people have personal things they have to overcome. Life stories occur, but you have to keep hitting it out of the park.

"I want my players to be leaders in the household, leaders in their community — and, today, they showed me they could be."

Jeff Downs finished with 40 points (and 301 for his career) before his dad pulled him from the game with 3:38 remaining. The younger downs was seven points shy of the 1A tournament record of 47 set by Elma's Chuck Hepworth in 1961 and matched by Stevenson's Darren Morning star in 1987.

Jeff — who will play college ball at Seattle Pacific University, his dad's alma mater — had also tied the single-game record of eight 3-pointers held by Faidley and TRAVIS KING of EPHRATA. Did he wish he could have stayed in to break it?

"That would have been fun, but we had the game won," he said. "No point rubbing it in.

"Records are fun, but it's not worth demoralizing the other team."

As Jeff Downs was talking to a reporter, DAUNTE GOUGE, a King's team trainer, approached and held up his cell phone to show its display to Downs: a text message from Faidley, congratulating him on breaking the scoring record.

Said Downs, "That's a lot of class."

Spoken by one who is, well, full of it.

RARIFIED AIR: By beating Meridian in Friday's semifinals, the BREWSTER boys left behind some very elite company and joined even more elite club, in which they are the only member. The Bears have now earned a berth in their fifth straight state championship game, a feat achieved by no other Washington basketball team of any classification, boys or girls.

The Bears won the 2003 and '04 1A titles, lost to BELLEVUE CHRISTIAN in the next two finals and now will face Toledo in tonight's championship.

Coming into this year's tournament, six other programs besides the Brewster boys had reached four final games — SEATTLE CHRISTIAN (1A boys, 2000-2003), RAINIER BEACH (3A boys, 2001-2004), KALAMA (B boys, 1948-1951), AUBURN (4A girls, 1982-1985), LYNDEN CHRISTIAN (1A girls, 1990-1993) and REARDAN (B girls, 1982-1985).

HISTORICAL MATCHUP: Friday night's late girls semifinal between LYNDEN CHRISTIAN and COLFAX had some impact on state tournament history.

In LC's 1990-'93 run — actually, beginning in the last day of the 1989 tourney — the Lyncs won 16 straight state-tournament games, a state record. Colfax, which finished fourth in the 2003 tournament before winning in '04, '05 and '06, won its 16th straight in Thursday's quarterfinals — and would break the record by winning its semifinal game. Of course, the team the Bulldogs would have to beat is Lynden Christian.

Who's got the record now? Well, like student cheering sections often chant, "Look at the scoreboard, see who's behind!"

SHORT JUMPERS: CASHMERE'S MICHAEL MILLER wears a brace on his leg, but it's what's in his heart that made him a tournament Iron Man. The future Oregon State baseball outfielder played all 96 minutes of the Bulldogs' three tourney games. ... Friday's weirdest in-game score: Burbank 42 girls, Seattle Christian 14. What makes it weird? Seattle Christian actually led 14-7 before going scoreless for 13 minutes and 24 seconds, long enough for the Coyotes to run off 35 unanswered points.

MERIDIAN junior forward ANDREI LINTZ didn't play basketball until middle school or football until high school. Now he's an all-state tight end who helped his football team to the state championship, and been the most productive productive player on a basketball team that reached the state semifinals.

When Meridian knocked off KING'S, BREWSTER upended defending champion BELLEVUE CHRISTIAN and TOLEDO drilled UNIVERSITY PREP in Thursday's boys quarterfinals, those three winners joined NOOKSACK VALLEY to create the first all-public-school 1A final four since 1997.