Starting from scratch

By DAVE THOMAS
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

On the eve of the Class 1B state basketball tournament, Moses Lake Christian coach Lonny Brown is sure of a couple of things.

First, his Lions, coming off a third-place state finish in 2008, are the top-ranked team in the state. Second, that means nothing starting Wednesday.

"The kids have come a long way this year, but we have a tough draw (to start)," Brown said, referring to fourth-ranked Oakville, Wednesday's opening-round opponent in the SunDome.

Brown is not alone in his assessment.

With no dominant team in the field, like Sunnyside Christian was in 2007, plenty of teams are harboring legitimate championship aspirations.

"There's more parity and that definitely makes it where every day matters," Almira-Coulee-Hartline coach Scott Isaak said. "There's no walk over. Records mean nothing. History means nothing."

That also means pretournament favorites such as Moses Lake Christian and ACH will have their hands full navigating their respective brackets.

Moses Lake Christian's favorite status is based in large part on the fact that it boasts perhaps the tournament's best 1-2 punch in 6-foot-7 center Riggs Yarbro and 6-2 guard Adrian Moffet, who both average just over 20 points per game.

"Moses Lake Christian has two very good players that stand out, and at our level, when you have that, it makes other teams stand at attention and take notice," Isaak said.

Yet the Lions (20-2) aren't a two-man show, Brown said.

"Recently, we've had two or three other kids score in double figures on any given night," he said. "You have to have that when you get to state."

Those contributions will be important right from the outset as the Lions face an Oakville team with a pretty good tandem of its own in swingman Berry Peterson (21.9 points per game) and guard Izaha Powell (19.7).

There are other threats lurking in the bracket, most notably fifth-ranked Cusick, which Isaak called a "great ballclub," and two-time defending champion Sunnyside Christian, which opens against Lummi.

ACH (19-4), which seems to be team to beat on the other side, doesn't boast the big-time scorers like Moses Lake Christian. Instead, the Warriors rely on balance and fast-paced play.

"We had a bunch of kids who wanted to work in the offseason," Isaak said of his team. "They did and now the payoff is coming. This is a real cohesive group."

The Warriors leading scorer, guard Derek Isaak, averages just 13.5 points per game, but they have two other players who average in double figures, and a fourth just under that.
"We're a hard team to defend," Scott Isaak said.

ACH opens Wednesday against Taholah, and could face a second-round test in Tulalip, which features one of the tournament's best players in senior forward Lesjar McKinney.

Other contenders in the bracket are third-ranked Wellpinit, and Tri-Cities Prep.

"We're confident," Scott Isaak said. "Every coach, every team has a team they'd rather not play right up front, but on the other hand, we're not afraid of anyone."