Maybe it's the name that keeps it from getting respect. Locals refer to it by its acronym, SCAC, pronouncing it Skack, something like the sound the neighbor's cat makes when it's doing that hairball thing.

But small-school basketball fans in the Yakima Valley and Tri-Cities have long known they had something special in the South Central Athletic Conference, and this year the rest of the Class 1A ranks are finding that out.

SCAC teams won seven of eight games on Wednesday, with the Western bi-district the only other region on the plus side at 4-2. The SCAC went 5-3 on Thursday for a 12-4 record — and four semifinalists, two on the boys side and two on the girls.

"I think the upper echelon teams in our district are as good as anybody else's," Burbank girls coach John Muchlinski said. "People don't give us credit because we do our own league and our own district, and I think people think because we don't go to a regional it doesn't make us tougher.

"But hey, just to come through our league and district is pretty tough to do."