Being ahead in any game of this year's Class 1A tournament doesn't mean a thing. We've seen more comebacks over the first two days than in any of the never-ending presidential debates.

On Wednesday, Granger's boys dug itself out of a 17-point, second-period hole to beat ninth-ranked Lake Roosevelt. Top-ranked Bellevue Chrsitian trailed by 11 with barely more than nine minutes remaining. And both Toledo's boys and Zillah's girls erased double-digit deficits only to lose close ones.

Thursday saw more of the same. Toledo trailed Lakeside by 14 with just 1 1/2 quarter remaining and pulled out the victory on the strength of Talon Rakoz's late free throw, the last of his 11 second-half points. Unheralded Cedar Park Christian was down by nine points midway through the third and came back to top No. 5 Castle Rock, a 20-game winner. And Bellevue Christian's girls, down by 10 points with less than three minutes left, came within one rimmed-out shot in the final six seconds of beating Vashon Island.

MAGIC MAN: He looks more like a defensive end than a basketball player, but 6-foot-4 CHARLES WRIGHT senior GERALD HILL was the MVP of the 4A South Puget Sound League's South Division as a junior — and it doesn't take more than a few seconds to see that he's got game.

"He almost controls the ball like a Magic Johnson," says King's coach Bill Liley. "He'll bring the ball down the court, as big as he is, and make no-look passes, he rebounds and throws incredible outlet passes to start their break."

Hill averaged four assists in the regular season, but his coach, Tyler Francis, says that should have been up around seven or eight. "In the beginning of the season, we weren't ready for him," he says. "Now they know if they don't have their hands ready, the ball will hit them in the stomach. The kid's the best passer I've seen at the high school level."

Proof? Hill had the assist on 11 of the 18 baskets his teammates scored in their opening-round win over Winlock. He had five more in CW's quarterfinal victory over Granger, but this time it was his scoring that was needed the most ... and he responded with 25 points.

THE NO "T" TIE: After getting hit with a technical foul during the regional tournament, LAKE ROOSEVELT coach BRAD WILSON received a special gift from his players — a gold tie, signed by all of his players after the team earned the program's first state berth since 1992.

Wilson calls it his "guaranteed no-"T" tie, and it has worked for two games. It has worked a lot better than his pants, in fact — during his team's come-from-behind win Thursday over Winlock to stay alive in the tournament, his slacks ripped all the way up the back.