For the third straight year, the Lynden Lions are the champions of 2A basketball.  The Lions defeated the Prosser Mustangs, 59-49, in the state championship game, Saturday night, in the Yakima SunDome.    The Lions got off to a quick 8-0 start that included two 3-point shots from senior forward Payton Mills.  After a Prosser timeout, the Lions lead grew to 12-0 before the Mustangs got on the board with 2:57 left in the opening quarter.   Leading 19-3 after eight minutes, the

(This Week In (the) State Tournament) The long and winding, definitely windy, and sometimes snowy, road to the Yakima County SunDome began right after Thanksgiving, 2025.  There are four tournaments and 48 teams remaining from all those that had this dream, months ago.    The remaining Northwest Conference representatives include the Lynden and Lynden Christian boys and girl’s teams, along with the Anacortes and Nooksack Valley boy’s teams.   Wednesday Games   1A Boys, 200pm

The Northwest Conference took five boys and three girls teams into regional play of the 2026 state basketball tournaments.  And when the weekend was over, six of the eight will play on in the Yakima County SunDome, and two are done for the season.   The headline on Friday was the Nooksack Valley boys win over Fort Vancouver.  The #16 Pioneers eliminated the #9 Trappers, 52-45, in a game played at Camas High School, in Vancouver, just a 285-mile trip, each way.   The Pioneers

Pioneer senior Cole Coppinger Before we get deep into what we will expect by the end of the day, let’s get caught up on what happened on Friday and Saturday.   The 1A teams were the focus, as they played their loser out games on Friday at Lynden High School, then their winner to state games on Saturday.   On Friday night, Meridian eliminated Blaine, 49-42.  The Trojans led by nine points at halftime, and by 15 at the end of the third quarter.    The Borderites rallied in the

I want to make all basketball fans aware that there will no longer be STATE TOURNAMENT PROGRAMS available for sale at state tournament events, including state basketball tournaments coming up in March.   If you are like me, and need that book in your hands and don’t want to scroll through all that information looking at a phone screen, you can download and print any state tournament program on the WIAA website, free of charge (other than your own printer ink).   The state tou

Eight boys district tournament games filled the evening of Friday the 13 th .  There were more important things to attend to than Jason and his hockey mask.    Before I analyze the two games I saw in The Palace at Mount Vernon High School, let’s take a look at what else happened in the night’s district tournament action.   1A Boys At Lynden Chistian, the top-seeded Lyncs (21-1) could not shake the #4 th  seed Blaine Borderites (5-18) until the final two minutes, in their 66-5

Ten weeks of Northwest Conference basketball now seems like it went by in about five minutes. We turn the page to the post-season, and here is a preview of what is around the corner. 1A BOYS   GAME #1 #5 Mount Baker Mountaineers (1-14/3-15) at #4 Blaine Borderites (2-13/4-17) Wednesday, Feb. 11, 700pm, Loser Out Winner at #1 Lynden Christian, Friday, Feb 13, 730pm   The Mountaineers have lost 12 straight games and the Borderites have lost ten straight games.  But that’s the

The dust has settled and the brackets have spoken on the 2025-26 Northwest Conference basketball season.  There were no earth-shattering events that happened on the conference’s final evening, but it is worth a review.   Squalicum broke a six-game losing streak with a win at Oak Harbor, 49-44.  The Wildcats had been eliminated from the post-season the day before with Mount Vernon’s win over Mount Baker.  It was a big win for the Storm to stop the losing streak before the 2A d

The number of streaks of consecutive points I have seen teams put on each other, many in the same game, has become very noticeable.  Even in the final week of the regular season, between teams discernable by just a basket or two.    Anacortes and Lynden put runs on each other in their game on Tuesday.  Lions Get Past Seahawks...   Then on Wednesday, Burlington-Edison turned around a 21-4 deficit to Bellingham (coming up here), then Anacortes and Lakewood turned the tide on ea

The Lynden Lions passed their first exam of finals week, with a 61-51 win over the Anacortes Seahawks, Tuesday night, at Jake Maberry Gym.    This battle between two of the 2A heavyweights meant the inside track to the top seed in next week’s district tournament.  But as I have said before, I think seed placement in this year’s tournament means less than in most years due to the depth of the entire field.   This game took on a heavy dose of a defensive focus from both benches

As of Monday, it’s Finals week.  Has your team kept their grades up all season, and is ready for Finals Week exams, or have they been daydreaming in class and in need of learning two semesters of geology in three hours?  Fortunately, either way, they are all still in line for a passing grade.   The Lynden Christian boys finished rivalry week by locking up the conference championship with a 72-54 win over Lynden.    On the girls’ side, Lynden took sole possession of first plac

Sedro-Woolley’s 76-60 win over Sehome on Monday keeps the Cubs in the race for second place in the Northwest Conference, and solidifies their #6 RPI toward the 3A district tournament.   Tuesday’s 70-62 win by Meridian over Ferndale pushes the Trojans closer to the #2 seed heading into the 1A district tournament.  The Trojans NWC record is now 4-8, with Nooksack Valley and Blaine at 2-10.  The Trojans need one more win, or a loss by both the Pioneers and Borderites, to secure

Last week in the Northwest Conference, there were five games in which teams of the same classification went head-to-head.  Three of those were between teams who were no more than one game apart in the standings.   In Burlington on Monday, Lakewood, with a 6-3 NWC record, was at Burlington, who was 6-2.  The offenses were not up to the challenges that their respective defenses offered.  The Cougars got a 54-43 win, despite being held to their third lowest point total of the se

With three weeks left in the regular season, Lynden Christian continues to lead the standings on the boy’s side with a perfect 9-0 record.  One length behind are the Anacortes Seahawks.  The Seahawks will host the Lyncs on Wednesday.   Lynden has forged their way into third place after wins over Sehome and Burlington-Edison this week, as the 2A’s continue shuffling like a deck of cards on a Las Vegas blackjack table.   Sehome responded to their loss to Lynden by winning at La

In the upcoming week, we will pass through the mid-point of the conference season.  No matter what your team’s record is now, you are still in the hunt.   Here is some of what went on in the Northwest Conference race since Wednesday.    Lynden 79, Sedro-Woolley 71   Wednesday at Lynden, the Lions broke open a close game in the final seconds of the third quarter and the opening seconds of the fourth to get past the Sedro-Woolley Cubs, 79-71.   In a sharply played offensive fir

The first event of the new year was a battle of two of the final four unbeatens in the Northwest Conference boy’s race.  The Lynden Christian Lyncs (4-0/9-1) at the Burlington-Edison Tigers (3-0/7-1).  This race was over quickly, as the Lyncs sprinted to a huge early lead and beat the Tigers, 79-52.   The Lyncs are known for their sharp shooting from beyond the 3-point arc, but on this night, they did their early damage near the rim.  Their first nine field goals were 2-point

The SunDome Shootout is a major event in my world.  It’s the best chance in the state to see the most teams in one spot.  You can see a team play two consecutive days, so if that team struggled on day one, you could get a second read on them next day.   It caters mainly to the 1A and 2A classifications that will be a part of the state tournaments in the Yakima SunDome in March.  There were 28 teams this year.  Most are from the boys 1A and 2A classifications.  There were also

From Wednesday to Monday, I personally saw three teams reach the 90-point threshold.  Two were in the same game.  The third came on Monday night as Lakewood ran past Nooksack Valley, 91-59.   And a game the same day that I did not attend, Lynden Christian outscored Arlington 19-11 in overtime to leave with a 93-85 win.  It was the second time the Lyncs hit 90-plus in their last three games.   If I were a coach in the NWC, I have always said that Lakewood would be the most dif

For the second time in three days, the Sedro-Woolley Cubs lost a heartbreaker on overtime.  Coming off an emotional 65-63 OT loss to Anacortes at home on Monday, the Cubs were nipped again, 91-90, Wednesday night, at Lynden Christian.   The Cubs, who played the last 4:04 without leading scorer, Ethan DeJong, who fouled out in the last seconds of regulation, had a 90-85 lead with 58 seconds left in overtime.    They took the five-point lead with 1:15 left in OT, thanks to a ni

There were six conference games played over Monday and Tuesday, and there was nothing close to a nail-biter.  Two games had differentials of 16 points.  Another pair had margins of 26 points.  And the last two were decided by 31 and 39 points.   The Mount Baker Mountaineers had the toughest assignment.  Their late start due to football success had them hitting the floor on Monday, in Sedro-Woolley for their first game of the year.  Not a team to go up against when your main c