Colfax pleased with 1A draws
Colfax’s boys got about as nice a draw as they could have hoped for in the State 1A Tournament on Sunday.
Freeman’s boys? Well, not so much.
The Bulldogs (19-4), who earned the Northeast’s No. 1 seed to state with a 47-41 win over Oroville on Saturday, open their state tournament against River View (18-6), the Yakima Valley District’s third seed, Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at the Yakima SunDome.
Colfax, which is in the bracket’s bottom half, also avoided Brewster, which has to be considered the tournament’s heavy favorite, though Bulldogs head coach Phil Hergert was less concerned with where Brewster was – “You have to play them sooner or later anyway,” he said – and more concerned with his team’s good starting time.
“That’s great,” he said upon hearing of his team’s draw. “Right now, we’re just happy we’re in it. That’s a good time for us. It doesn’t really matter a lot, but we probably prefer the afternoon time as opposed to 9 a.m. You never know what team will show up early – or for that matter, the (9 p.m.) game.”
Freeman’s boys weren’t as lucky.
The Scotties (14-10) drew Cascade Christian (17-5), the third seed from the Tri-District, in the first round’s opening match – Wednesday at 9 a.m.
Freeman, which earned the Caribou Trail’s second seed with a 44-40 win over Lake Roosevelt on Saturday, also would have a potential second round matchup with Brewster (21-1), should both Freeman and the Bears – who open against Ilwaco – both win.
On the girls side, Freeman, which earned the Northeast’s No. 1 seed with a 60-44 win over Brewster on Saturday, opens against Bush (15-7), the Tri-District’s sixth seed, at 2 p.m. Wednesday, also at the SunDome.
The Scotties (19-3) are in the last game in the top half of the bracket.
Colfax is in the last game of the opening night, earned the Caribou Trail’s No. 2 seed and will take on Overlake (16-9) – the third seed from the Tri-District – at 9 p.m., a time the two-time defending state champion hasn’t seen before.
“I keep hearing the 9 a.m. one is the tough one to get,” Colfax head coach Corey Baerlocher said. “But I don’t know if the 9 p.m. is much better ‘cause if you keep winning you stay at 9 p.m. … But I would much rather deal with the 9 p.m. game then just go over and watch.”
The Bulldogs (20-4) headline a tough bottom half of the bracket that also includes White Pass (22-1) and undefeated White Swan (23-0), which Colfax would play in the quarterfinals should both teams win their opening-round games.
Baerlocher is hoping the Bulldogs’ plentiful state experience – this is Colfax’s ninth straight state appearance – comes in handy in their run for a fourth title in five years.
“It does have positive effect,” Baerlocher said. “They’ve been there, they know about the pressure. Does it mean they’ll deal with it? I don’t know, but they know about it.”