Six basketball programs represented the Northwest Conference in 1A and 2A boys and girls state tournaments in the Yakima County SunDome last week. Two won state championships and brought home the big Gold Ball. One of them has had it in their possession for quite a while. In fact, longer than any other team has ever had it. The other reclaimed the Gold Ball after a two-year absence. The Lynden Lion girls will have the Gold Ball in their possession for the third straight

The Lynden Lions are down to one game away from their third consecutive 2A state championship. They put a defensive straight jacket on the Clarkston Bantams, in a 50-30 win in the state semifinals, Friday evening in the Yakima SunDome. After eight minutes, it would have been hard to believe that either team would reach 50 points. The Bantams scored first, and it held up for over four minutes before the Lions tied the score on an inside bucket by senior forward Rian Steph

The Lynden Christian Lyncs sprinted past the Seattle Christian Warriors, 84-56, in the quarterfinals of the 1A Boys state tournament, Thursday, in the Yakima SunDome. The win puts the Lyncs into the semifinals for the sixth consecutive year. The Lyncs got out to a quick 10-2 lead as the Warriors didn’t net a field goal until the 4:15 mark of the first period. But once they did, they engineered a run of their own and took a 13-11 lead. The quarter ended with a 3-point sh

(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

We are just one day away from the start of regional play in the 2026 state basketball tournaments. Here is look at what to expect on the boys floor through next week. 1A Boys State Tournament Preview #16 Nooksack Valley Pioneers (10-14) vs #9 Fort Vancouver Trappers (20-3) Camas High School, Vancouver, Friday, February 27, 600pm The Trappers broke through last year, appearing in their first state basketball tournament since the 1990 4A state tournament. Their stay as t

I didn't see many girls games, but I can give you some matchup perspectives, and a little history along the way. Please read on for information on the 1A and 2A Girls State Basketball Tournaments. 1A Girls State Tournament Preview #16 King’s Way Christian Knights (16-6) vs #9 Nooksack Valley Pioneers (14-10) Lynden High School, Saturday, February 28, 200pm The Knights are making just their third state tournament appearance, and second consecutive. They lost in the regiona

Cougar sophomore Carter Langum The 2A Boys District 1 Tournament has always been the utmost of challenges to squeak through the mass of quality talent and competitive teams, but this year there was an extra element added. The days of sending three or four teams to state ended in the 2023-24 season when the district’s number of teams fell over the years from twelve teams to ten, then finally to the current count of nine teams in the 2A classification in District 1. The co

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

There were eight boys district tournament games played on Wednesday, and every home team won, which means every higher seed advanced. There were two teams on the wrong side of that. Ferndale, the #10 seed, had their season end in a 70-67 loss at #7 Meadowdale in the 3A district tournament. The Golden Eagles finish with a record of 8-13 on the season. Mount Baker also had their season end, as they lost at Blaine, 60-43, in the 1A district play-in game. The Borderites w

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

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

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