Winner of tough district avoids top contenders

By SCOTT SANDSBERRY
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

After leading his team to victories in 20 of 23 games and capturing the championship in the state's toughest district tournament, Colton girls basketball coach Clark Vining has had plenty of reason to feel like celebrating lately.

He got even more of that on Sunday afternoon, when the Class 1B tournament brackets were unveiled on the WIAA's Web site.

There in the lower bracket were top-ranked Sunnyside Christian (19-2), last year's state runner-up; No. 2 Garfield-Palouse (20-4); No. 4 Entiat, whose only loss in last year's tourney was to eventual champion Sprague-Harrington; and late-charging St. John-Endicott, which trounced both Gar-Pal and Tekoa-Oakesdale in district play.

Colton (20-3), meanwhile, is in the morning bracket, in which the other contenders figure to be Pateros (17-5), fifth-ranked Lake Quinault (18-2) and Touchet (19-4).

While admitting that the upper bracket seemingly gives Colton an easier road to the championship than those teams in the bottom bracket, though, Vining wasn't about to make any presumptions.

"You never know about these things," he said. "Yes, it looks like the bottom half has some real good teams in it -- Sunnyside (Christian), Entiat, St. John, Gar-Pal ... but, for us, we can't look ahead.

"I think that's where you get in trouble, looking at the whole bracket. I know it's a cliche, but we're going to try to take it one game at a time. That's the approach you have to have. You want to be confident, but you have to respect who you're playing, because anything can happen in a tournament situation."

Just ask St. John-Endicott coach Don Kemper about that one. The Eagles came into the Southeast District tournament as the fifth and final seed out of ultra-tough Whitman County League. They then notched those back-to-back stunners over Gar-Pal and Tekoa-Oakesdale to reach the district final, whre they lost by 10 to Colton.

"We've put more of a target on ourselves, that's for sure," Kemper said. "I think we've jelled. We've spent more time on fundamentals, kind of went back to old-school basketball."

SJE (12-12) will open against Curlew, with the winner to face the survivor of the late game of opening night, Gar-Pal or Lummi. Sunnyside Christian ad Entiat play in the first two games of the evening bracket. Kemper said he considered Sunnyside Christian the team to beat.

"If I had my druthers, I'd rather have them on the other side," he said. "You definitely want Sunnyside Christian opposite from you. I know Al (Smeenk, coach of the No. 1 Knights) and what a program he's got there."

Pateros coach John Ellis feels the same way.

"I predict Sunnyside Christian to win it all, or be in the championship game," said Ellis, whose team features one of the best all-around players in the tournament in senior Clara Hull. "They're a good team. I saw them last year and I know what they brought back."

Pateros opens against Lake Quinault in one of the first round's most intriguing matchups. Another interesting team in the upper bracket -- one almost certain to be overlooked because of its 11-11 record -- is Almira/Coulee-Hartline. The Warriors were battle-tested in the largely 2B Bi-County League, led Entiat by eight points at halftime in a Christmas tournament (before losing by 11) and won their last two district games by 17 over Curlew and by 14 over Cusick.

"We've come together in the last two weeks," ACH coach Ben Addink said. "The girls are playing with a ton of heart."