2025-26 Regular Season in the Books

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 district tournament begins. 

Sehome overcame a 43-30 halftime deficit to beat Burlington-Edison, 69-64.  This game set the final spots for the top five seeds to the 2A district tournament.

I don’t remember exactly where I heard or read it, (oh, yes, I do).  Yesterday’s post: “More Tight Games as Teams Jockey for Post-Season Position.”

I said that after Lakewood lost to Anacortes on Thursday, the Cougars would be the #4 seed, and the winner of the Sehome would take #3, while the loser would slip to #5.  That’s what happened!

I also predicted that Bellingham would jump Marysville-Pilchuck, and they did.  The Bayhawks beat the Tomahawks 71-24 in their first game of the season.  Bellingham finished as the #9 RPI, with Marysville-Pilchuck at #8.  (The RPI isn’t perfect, which is why a committee now oversees it).  The swap gives the Bayhawks a home game with the Tomahawks in the district tournament play-in game.

Bellingham helped that cause by squeaking past Meridian, 80-78 in overtime, at home on Friday. 

As the clock ticked toward zero in regulation, senior guard Calvin Van Hofwegen went to tie the score with a 3-point shot, but as he left the floor under heavy defensive pressure by the Trojans, he dumped the ball off to senior forward Joe Harward.  Harward had to back peddle with a dribble to get behind the 3-point line, then nailed the shot at the buzzer to send the game to overtime. 

At Nooksack on Friday, the Pioneers competed well with the Lynden Lions.  They were down by 16 points in the third quarter and cut that lead in half late in the fourth quarter.  The Lions won 59-48 to secure the top seed in the 2A district tournament. 

Their records don’t show it, but the competitiveness of the 1A teams over the past two weeks proves that they have cranked things up prior to their five-team district tournament.  The top two teams advance directly to the state tournament.  There are no crossover games with District 2 this year. 

Sedro-Woolley, Mount Vernon, and Ferndale have qualified for the 3A boys district tournament.  The 3A tournament schedules for boys and girls will not be set until Sunday. 

In the girls tournaments, Lynden and Archbishop Murphy are the top two seeds in 2A, respectively.  Squalicum is #3; Sehome #4; Lakewood #5; Burlington-Edison #6; Anacortes #7; #8 Bellingham will host #9 Marysville-Pilchuck on Tuesday, February 10, in the play-in game.

The Lynden Christian girls are again the top seed to the 1A tournament.  Nooksack Valley is the #2, followed by Mount Baker, Meridian, and Blaine.

Check back on the 1A boys and girls tournament schedule as times that are listed now may be changed as teams may be hosting boys and girls games on the same day, or a school may have teams playing in different gyms.  For these reasons, times are often adjusted for fans.

For a complete breakdown of the district tournaments that tip off on Monday, check back here Monday morning.  Let’s let the Seattle Seahawks have all the attention tomorrow.

~ Ted House