The Tacoma Dome will have a big-time Federal Way feel starting Wednesday afternoon.
Three of the four Federal Way School District schools will be represented at the Class 4A state basketball tournaments. In total, four Federal Way teams will take the floor inside the Tacoma Dome, including both the boys and girls from Federal Way, along with the boys from Decatur and Beamer.
“It’s going to be fun,” said first-year Beamer head coach Brent Brilhante.
Brilhante’s team is easily the most surprising of the Federal Way entries. The Titans entered the postseason as the fifth-place team from the nine-team South Puget Sound League South Division and just one game over .500 on the year. They featured a first-year head coach, Brent Brilhante, no district wins in the program’s history and basically one player returning from last year’s team, sophomore guard Napa Mefi.
And to make things worse, Beamer was beaten in their West Central District opener by Foss. But that’s when things turned around. The Titans went on to win three-straight loser-out games to qualify for the Class 4A State Tournament.
“We just wanted to prove everybody wrong,” said 6-foot-8 senior Kevin Davis, the Titans’ leading scorer and rebounder. “We just want to keep the streak going. That’s how we play, nothing to lose.”
The Titans (14-11) open their first-ever state tournament at 2 p.m. today against the Walla Walla Blue Devils. Walla Walla (19-7) lost to Eisenhower in the Eastern Washington district championship and play a slow and prodding style, which is the exact opposite of what the Titans want to do.
“They are very different than us,” Brilhante said. “They have a lot of patience on offense and sit back in a 2-3 zone the whole time. They look like they want to keep the game in the low 50s and that’s definitely don’t want to do. I don’t want the score to be in the 50s.”
Being a young team could also help the Titans in Tacoma. They really don’t know what to expect and really don’t care who they are playing, according to Brilhante.
“It doesn’t affect them either way,” he said. “I talked to Napa and told him they like to sit in a 2-3 zone and he just said he would shoot them out of it. But that’s just how these kids are. The kids are excited, but they have the perfect demeanor right now. They are not bouncing off the wall being nervous.”
“It’s going to be our first time in the Tacoma Dome,” said Mefi, who had 28 points in the state-clinching win over Bellarmine Friday. “And our whole team feeds off that. Nobody knows what’s going to happen at state. But we are a well-rounded team.”
The No. 1-ranked Federal Way Eagles enter the 2009 state tournament as the favorite in the Class 4A bracket and face a familiar foe in their opener. The Eagles will take on the Redmond Mustangs at noon today. Redmond upset a very talented Federal Way team in 2007, 64-62.
This is a different Eagle team, however. Federal Way enters the state tournament on a 13-game winning streak, which includes wins at the SPSL Tournament and first West Central District championship since 1994.
Federal Way has the quickest and deepest roster in Tacoma and their full-court pressure defense wears out opponents. The Eagles can go 10 players deep and have an amazing nine players who have scored in double digits during a game this season.
The Eagles, last year’s state runner-up, have a potential quarterfinal matchup with Beamer Thursday, if both teams win their openers at 8:30 p.m.
If records and rankings mean anything, the Decatur Gators (21-4) are sitting in the tougher of the two sides of the bracket. Decatur, the third-place team from the West Central District, will play the sixth-ranked and Greater Spokane League champion Gonzaga Prep Bullpups (23-3) at 7 p.m. tonight, with the winner getting second-ranked Garfield in the quarterfinals Thursday, most likely. Garfield (20-3), the winner of the KingCo League, opens against Lake Stevens (20-4), the winner of the Wesco North. The bracket actually includes seven league champions, along with Curtis, who finished second in the SPSL South to Decatur.
“The bottom half of the bracket is ridiculous,” said Decatur head coach Kevin Olson. “I’d say that is a pretty powerful collection of teams. But again, this is the state tournament, you would expect the teams to have impressive resumes.”
Gonzaga Prep is a big, strong and physical team that is led by point guard David Stockton, son of NBA legend John Stockton.
“It is going to be a very tough game,” Olson said. “We’ll have to ready to play our best starting Wednesday night or we’ll find ourselves in the consolation games.”
The Gators advanced to the state semifinals a season ago before losing to Federal Way in overtime. Decatur eventually finished sixth and return three starters from that team in seniors Cam Schilling and Marcus Tibbs and sophomore Jerron Smith.
“A wise man once told me to get through this tournament and play in the championship, you must have your best players make big plays and you have to catch a few breaks,” Olson said. “We’ve got experienced players in Tibbs, Smith, (Jordan) McCloud and Schilling. They know what to expect and what it takes. We just need to give everything each night and hopefully we’ll get that break or two we need so we can reach our aspirations of playing on Saturday night.”
Inglemoor and Roosevelt will open up the tournament at 9 a.m. Wednesday at the Tacoma Dome.
“I’m confident,” Brilhante said. “I’m not embarrassed to say that. The state tournament is a funny place.”
Girls Tournament
The Federal Way Eagles (21-5) and head coach Danny Graham didn’t get any favors Sunday afternoon at the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s (WIAA) office in Renton. The Class 4A Girls State Basketball Tournament draw came out with the Eagles taking on three-time defending champion Lewis and Clark of Spokane in the opening round at 8:30 p.m. tonight at the Tacoma Dome.
It will be Federal Way’s first appearance at the state tournament since 1998. The Eagles beat Mount Tahoma Saturday, 77-56, to secure the West Central District’s third seed. The Eagles got 19 points and six rebounds from TyShana Burgess, 15 points from freshman Darah Huertas-Vining and 11 points, six rebounds, six assists and four steals from senior Jacqie Evenson.
But Federal Way’s attention is now clearly on Lewis and Clark. The Tigers made history last season by winning the school’s third straight 4A title and were just two wins short of the state’s record for consecutive victories, 56, when they got beat last month by Mead. Five days later, Walla Walla handed the Tigers’ their second loss. Lewis and Clark eventually eliminated both Mead and Walla Walla during the Eastern Washington district tournament.
Lewis and Clark (25-2) is led by senior Jeneva Anderson, who has already signed to play next season at the University of Washington.
The winner of the Lewis and Clark-Federal Way game will take on the winner of a game between Jackson (20-4) and Issaquah (17-6) at 8:30 p.m. Thursday. The losers will play at 2 p.m. Thursday.
