With the regular season just completed, all 11 of our Whatcom County boys basketball teams are preparing for the postseason, which starts this week.
Lummi Nation, Ferndale, and the Class 1A teams start their playoff runs on Tuesday, Feb. 8, and the 2A squads begin on Wednesday.
While the final seedings and dates were officially announced Sunday, Feb. 6, the venues and times are still tentative, so if in doubt, check the websites of the Northwest Conference or the Northwest 1B League.
For a look at the girls playoff previews, click on Girls District Previews.
Here’s a look at each classification’s district boys tournament:
CLASS 1B: Top-seed Lummi Nation In Semifinals
Our county’s smallest school, Lummi Nation, is the top seed in the District 1 tournament and automatically advances not only to the district semifinals but to the District 1/2/3 tournament.
The Blackhawks (11-1), who also are ranked fifth in the latest Associated Press state poll, will host fourth-seed Orcas Island (7-6) on Tuesday, Feb. 8, in one semifinal, and third-seed Grace Academy (10-3) will visit second-seed Mount Vernon Christian (13-4) in the other semi.
All four teams will advance to the tri-district tournament along with the winner of the consolation contest between Providence Classical Christian (6-6) and Cedar Park Christian (Lynnwood) (7-10). The top six finishers at the 12-team tri-district tournament will advance to the state regionals.
CLASS 1A: LC, Blaine To Play For District Title
All five of our Northwest Conference teams automatically qualified for the District 1 tournament, which turns out to be a modified league tournament. All games are part of doubleheaders with the girls counterparts and will be played at the highest-seeded girls team’s gym.
Top-seed Lynden Christian (16-1) will play second-seed Blaine (11-5) in the district championship game on Friday, Feb. 11, at Nooksack Valley, with the winner advancing to the bi-district crossover round. The Lyncs are tied for No.1 in the state and the Borderites are just outside the top 10.
Before that happens, though, there will be two games. The first round will pit fifth-seed Mount Baker (0-16) and fourth-seed Meridian (5-12) on Tuesday, Feb. 8, in a loser-out game at Blaine.
The winner moves on to the second-round to face third-seed Nooksack Valley (5-11) on Thursday, Feb. 10, at Meridian in another loser-out contest.
The winner of that game will take on the loser of the Lynden Christian-Blaine game on Feb. 15 in the consolation final at either Nooksack Valley or LC. That, too, is a loser-out game with the winner earning the district’s second berth in the bi-district crossover round.
The two county teams that advance to the bi-district will play the fourth- and fifth-place finishers of the District 2 tournament at King’s on Feb. 19. The winners of those two games will then move on to the state regionals.
CLASS 2A: Lynden To Face Bellingham-Squalicum Winner
All four of our Northwest Conference teams qualified for the District 1 tournament that includes eight NWC teams and Archbishop Murphy and Cedarcrest of the WesCo.
Ninth-seed Bellingham (5-9) will travel across town to face eighth-seed Squalicum (6-11) in a loser-out, play-in game on Wednesday, Feb. 9. The winner of that game would advance to the double-elimination portion of the tournament to play top seed and second-ranked Lynden (16-2) on the road on Friday, Feb. 11.
In another quarterfinal games on Feb. 11, second-seed and ninth-ranked Sehome (13-5) will host the winner of Wednesday’s play-in game between Sedro-Woolley (4-14) and Cedarcrest (7-10).
The quarterfinal winners will advance to the semifinals, which will be played at Mount Vernon High School along with two consolation games on Feb. 14. The championship game and consolation final will be played on Feb. 18 also at Mount Vernon.
The top three finishers will advance to the state regionals.
CLASS 3A: Ferndale To Tackle Second-Seed Shorecrest
Ferndale, Mount Vernon and Oak Harbor of the Northwest Conference will join 13 teams from the WesCo at district. Ferndale is seeded seventh and will open district play on Tuesday, Feb. 8.
The good news is that the Golden Eagles (8-10) are in the top eight, which means they avoid the loser-out play-in games. The bad news is that they will face second-seed and ninth-ranked Shorecrest (17-2) on the road in their opener. Ferndale lost to Shorecrest in both teams’ non-league opener,
Should Ferndale win, it would advance to the quarterfinals on Saturday, Feb. 12. If the Golden Eagles were to lose their district opener, they would host on Thursday, Feb. 10, the winner of the play-in game between the 10th seed and 15th seed.
The district semifinals and consolation games will be on Feb. 16 with the championship game and consolation semifinals on Feb. 19. The top four teams will advance to the state regionals
