With the first week of high school basketball playoffs over, it’s time to stop on the road to state and figure out where the Whatcom teams are heading into Week 2.
Of our 22 teams, 17 are still alive and eligible for winning a state championship — or at least reaching state.
But before we take a look at the survivors, let’s take a moment to celebrate those teams who wrapped up their seasons last week — the Bellingham boys and girls, the Blaine girls, the Ferndale boys, and the Mount Baker boys.
Thank you Bayhawks, Borderites, Golden Eagles, and Mounties for the great moments you all provided fans across Whatcom County during the exciting 2025-26 season.
And now on to those who are continuing down the road that leads to the state tournaments in Spokane (Class 1B), Yakima (1A and 2A), and Tacoma (3A). Only two have qualified so far — the Lynden boys and girls — but that should change starting Tuesday.
Here’s a look where each team stands and what they need to do to reach their state tournament.
CLASS 1B BOYS
Lummi Nation Blackhawks
Record: 20-1-1
RPI ranking: No. 5
Next game: District 1/2/3 quarterfinal against Northwest Yeshiva (16-8) of Mercer Island, Tuesday at 7 p.m., at Lummi Nation
What the Blackhawks need to do to qualify for state: Show up healthy on Tuesday. Lummi Nation is the defending 1B state champion and is talented and tested. The Blackhawks will be heavily favored against the Lions, who had to win a play-in game Saturday against Darrington just to get into the double-elimination rounds. A victory Tuesday would guarantee Lummi a top-six tri-district finish and a return trip to state.
CLASS 1A BOYS
Blaine Borderites
Record: 5-18
RPI ranking: No. 41
Next game: District 1 consolation game against Meridian, Friday at 7:15 p.m., at Lynden High School
What the Borderites need to do to qualify for state: Trust in the process. Despite their record, the fourth-seeded Borderites have steadily improved and gave heavily favored but short-handed Lynden Christian a scare on Friday. Blaine has been pointing to the post-season and will need to defeat Meridian on Friday and the championship game loser on Saturday, teams the Borderites lost to during the regular season. But you never know.
Lynden Christian Lyncs
Record: 20-1
RPI ranking: No. 2
Next game: District 1 championship game against Nooksack Valley (9-13), Tuesday at 7:15 p.m., at Lynden High School
What the Lyncs need to do to qualify for state: Be prepared and be careful. It was a difficult week for the Lyncs with the unexpected absence of their leading scorer on Friday and the recent passing of coach Tim Zylstra’s mother (we all loved Joyce). And they will probably be without Dawson Hintz again on Tuesday against a dangerous Pioneers team that has been playing well. But all LC needs to do is win one more game either Tuesday or Saturday against the Blaine-Meridian winner, and the Lyncs beat all three teams handily during the regular season.
Meridian Trojans
Record: 6-15
RPI ranking: No. 34
Next game: District 1 consolation game against Blaine (5-18), Friday at 7:15 p.m., at Lynden High School
What the Trojans need to do to qualify for state: Get back their late-game magic. Meridian beat Blaine and Nooksack Valley in down-to-the-wire games during the regular-season and would have to do that again on Friday and Saturday (barring a Nooksack upset of heavily favored Lynden Christian) to earn the state berth. But the Trojans lost a close one to the Pioneers last week so is the magic still there? The games will be toss-ups but Meridian has one thing the other two don’t have — state experience — so we’ll see if that’s enough.
Nooksack Valley Pioneers
Record: 9-13
RPI ranking: No. 29
Next game: District 1 championship game against Lynden Christian, Tuesday at 7:15 p.m., at Lynden High School
What the Pioneers need to do to qualify for state: Take advantage of the situation. All the Pioneers need to do is win one more game either against a short-handed LC squad on Tuesday that is expected to be missing the Northwest League’s best 1A player or the survivor of Friday’s Blaine-Meridian battle coming into Saturday’s consolation final without any rest. Neither task will be easy — whoever said the playoffs were easy? — but Nooksack has been playing well of late and is hitting its stride at the right time.
CLASS 2A BOYS
Lynden Lions
Record: 17-6
RPI ranking: No. 10
Next game: District 1 championship game against Anacortes (19-4), Thursday at 7:30 p.m., at Mount Vernon High School
What the Lions need to do to qualify for state: Nothing, since they earned a return trip to state by beating Lakewood in Friday’s district semifinals. Unlike the past couple of years, District 1 has an extra “half” state berth this season, which means its third-place finisher has a chance to qualify for state (see Sehome and Squalicum below). That also means the Lions can relax Thursday because win or lose, they’ll finish in the top two and automatically earn a spot in the state regionals on Feb. 27 or 28.
Sehome Mariners
Record: 15-6
RPI ranking: No. 9
Next game: District 1 consolation game against Burlington-Edison, Monday at 7:30 p.m., at Mount Vernon High School
What the Mariners need to do to qualify for state: Don’t panic. After Friday’s frustrating loss to Anacortes, it would be tempting to overhaul things, but veteran coach Brad Jackson knew it was more of a bad matchup rather than a bad beating. The Mariners first need to win two more games — Monday against the Tigers and Wednesday against either Lakewood or Squalicum — and while none of the three will be easy, Sehome defeated all three during the regular season. Then will come the crossover contest against the District 5 third-place team on the road — and that won’t be easy either. Still, a state berth is there for the taking.
Squalicum Storm
Record: 10-11
RPI ranking: No. 30
Next game: District 1 consolation game against Lakewood, Monday at 5:30 p.m., at Mount Vernon High School
What the Storm needs to do to qualify for state: Pull off three upsets in six days, that’s all. Of all our teams, Squalicum probably has the most difficult road. The lowest 2A seed still remaining, the seventh-seeded Storm will be a big underdog against both Lakewood on Monday and the Sehome-Burlington winner on Wednesday, having lost to all three by 14 or more points during the regular season. And then there’s the crossover game against another favorite on the road. But that’s the thing: It’s not the regular season and the Storm are playing their best ball of the season right now, so you never know.
CLASS 1B GIRLS
Lummi Nation Lady Blackhawks
Record: 19-2
RPI ranking: No. 6
Next game: District 1/2/3 quarterfinal against Concrete (18-6), Tuesday at 5:30 p.m., at Lummi Nation
What the Lady Blackhawks need to do to qualify for state: Show up Tuesday. Somehow, the seeding committee put the Lions in the same bracket as Lummi Nation — the same Lions who lost to the Blackhawks by 44 points last Tuesday in the District 1 final. There is no guarantee in high school sports, but if there was, it would be Lummi Nation winning Tuesday, thereby placing in the top six of the tri-district tournament, and making hotel reservations for the Blackhawks’ third straight state trip to Spokane.
CLASS 1A GIRLS
Lynden Christian Lyncs
Record: 19-3
RPI ranking: No. 3
Next game: District 1 championship game against Nooksack Valley (13-9), Tuesday at 5:30 p.m., at Lynden High School
What the Lyncs need to do to qualify for state: Play LC basketball. With their crosstown rivals getting all the publicity and hype — and rightfully so — it’s easy to forget the Lyncs were the second-best team in the Northwest Conference whose only losses were to highly ranked 2B, 2A, and 4A teams. Don’t expect Tuesday’s final to be another 20-point win over the Pioneers as happened last month, but the Lyncs are definitely the favorite to claim the district title and qualify for state for the zillionth time.
Nooksack Valley Pioneers
Record: 13-9
RPI ranking: No. 17
Next game: District 1 championship game against Lynden Christian (19-3), Tuesday at 5:30 p.m., at Lynden High School
What the Pioneers need to do to qualify for state: Play Nooksack basketball. The Pioneers have all the pieces with one of the best all-around rosters around, and their veterans have state experience going back to the Valley Girls’ championship years. You have to figure they’ll give LC a better game the second time around, but even should they lose the district final, all they have to do is beat either Meridian or Mount Baker, both of whom Nooksack has beaten by double digits this season. But this is the playoffs and one slip-up and your season is done.
Meridian Trojans
Record: 8-14
RPI ranking: No. 32
Next game: District 1 consolation game against Mount Baker (5-15), Friday at 5:40 p.m., at Lynden High School
What the Trojans need to do to qualify for state: Take it to a new level. The road is a tough one for the scrappy Trojans, who must beat Mount Baker on Friday and then come right back and beat either Lynden Christian or Nooksack Valley on Saturday. Meridian lost to all three by double digits during the regular season and playoffs. The good new is that defense wins championships and the Trojans like to play physical defense; the bad news is that you also need some offense, which the Trojans have found hard to come by against the league’s best teams. So it’s now or never for Meridian.
Mount Baker Mounties
Record: 5-15
RPI ranking: No. 37
Next game: District 1 consolation game against Meridian (8-14), Friday at 5:40 p.m., at Lynden High School
What the Mounties need to do to qualify for state: Get past the mental block. Despite their record, which includes five forfeits (it’s a long story), the Mounties are a very dangerous team that like Meridian, needs to win two games to get to state. But Mount Baker hasn’t had much success since the state championship in 2017 and the current group has yet to record a signature win over a better team like the Pioneers. Still, barring upsets, it looks like it’ll be Nooksack-Baker III for a state berth — and you know how hard it is to beat a team three times.
CLASS 2A GIRLS
Lynden Lions
Record: 22-0
RPI ranking: No. 1
Next game: District 1 championship game against Archbishop Murphy (18-4), Thursday at 5:30 p.m., at Mount Vernon High
What the Lions need to do to qualify for state: Nothing. The two-time defending state champions probably made their hotel reservations for this March right after last year’s state final. Win or lose Thursday, they already qualified for state with a win in the district semifinals on Saturday. The Lions will be top-ranked and ready when they head to Yakima.
Sehome Mariners
Record: 16-7
RPI ranking: No. 11
Next game: District 1 consolation game against Anacortes, Monday at 5:30 p.m., at Lynden High School
What the Mariners need to do to qualify for state: Find more offense. The disaster against Lynden aside — it’s a disaster for everyone who plays Lynden — the Mariners usually win when they score more than 50 points and lose when they can’t reach 40. They can’t ignore Anacortes, but if they win Monday, they will have to come up with enough points to beat Squalicum (barring an upset) and then a pretty good Yakima Valley team in the crossover game — two squads that will play pretty good pressure defense.
Squalicum Storm
Record: 18-4
RPI ranking: No. 7
Next game: District 1 consolation game against Lakewood (10-13), Monday at 7:30 p.m., at Lynden High School
What the Storm needs to do to qualify for state: Don’t look ahead — or behind. The Storm definitely don’t want to dwell on Saturday’s blowout loss to Archbishop Murphy — and they won’t. But they also better not look past a feisty Lakewood squad on Monday in anticipation of facing city rival Sehome on Wednesday. If they can focus on one game at a time, the Storm could win the three games necessary to qualify for state for the first time in 15 years. If they can’t, the talented junior class will have to try one last time next year.
CLASS 3A GIRLS
Ferndale Golden Eagles
Record: 9-14
RPI ranking: No. 43
Next game: District 1 consolation game at Shorecrest (10-13), Wednesday at 7 p.m.
What the Golden Eagles need to do to qualify for state: Two more playoff upsets — preferably buzzer-beating 3-pointers. It’s hard not to love the 10th-seeded Golden Eagles, who have the lowest RPI ranking of any remaining Whatcom team and who have had to overcome serious injuries to their best players. First, they will have to upset sixth-seeded Shorecrest on its home court. Then they would have to upset the loser of the Snohomish-Meadowdale semifinal, both of whom are traditional 3A state powers. But these Golden Eagles are tough birds, who already pulled off one playoff miracle last week thanks to a 3-pointer at — you guessed it — the final buzzer.
