State Basketball Preview: Clover Park And Lakes Boys Advance To Electric Eight

Watch out Washington state, the City of Lakewood is sending a pair of highly talented hoops teams to the Tacoma Dome and Yakima Valley SunDome for the Class 3A and 2A electric eight basketball tournament starting on Thursday.

I'd call it the Elite Eight but the NCAA already has that.

The Clover Park and Lakes boys basketball teams are poised to compete in their respective statewide tournaments. Here is a breakdown of each team, how they got there and my prediction.

Clover Park Warriors

The (24-3 overall) have a rich mix of talent, making them the and . They lost a close game to this past Friday but came back to beat Port Angeles in an elimination game on Saturday to earn the No. 2 seed to the quarterfinal state competition at the Yakima Valley SunDome at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday where they will play River Ridge (19-5 overall).

Clover Park freshmen David Crisp and Ahmaad Rorie have combined to score more than 30 points per game and senior forward captain Tana Pritchard — who earned an athletic scholarship to play football for Washington State University — is averaging 22 points as well. Throw in the contributions of junior forward Dwayne Crawford, sophomore forward Isom Brown and senior power forward Marcus Sheppard and you've got a pretty well-rounded basketball team.

The freshmen do a great job handling the ball and are both 3-point threats. Pritchard has a strong bounce in his leap and others know their role and haven't tried too hard to create shot opportunities.

Prediction

Clover Park is going to win the 2A state championship with a victory against River Ridge in the quarterfinal round, the winner of Grandview and Burlington Edison in the semifinals and then a rematch against Squalicum in the championship.

But this time, the Warriors will prevail with a score of 65-60.

Lakes Lancers

This basketball team has been fun to watch from the beginning of the season, and they've got all the tools to advance to the 3A state championship. The question is, however, will all their talent be able to work together in unison and execute half-court plays when its necessary.

The (21-3 overall) are the No. 5 ranked team in the state and beat Decatur to qualify to the state quarterfinal competition. They dominated the SPSL 3A and will face O'Dea – the top ranked squad (23-2 overall) – in the opening round.

Hey, if you're going to get to the championship game, you might as well play the best to start off with. It won't be easy but the Lancers can topple the Fighting Irish if they use their size in the half court and depth to stay fresh throughout this fast-paced game.

Lakes features the finesse and senior leadership of Isaac Winston, a tall and versatile 6-foot-5 guard Nate Guy, 6-foot-4 forward Taylor McCallister, 6-foot-8 post Zach Banner and a host of other guys (Andrew Holloway, Carl Flamer and freshman Anthony White) who are capable of filling in the gaps.

This team is pretty loaded, the only potential issue is getting them to understand they all can't shoot the ball. Share it, pass it around and try to go inside to Banner if he's not being double or triple teamed.

Getting Banner involved early will open things up later on. Against the Gators, he scored eight points and was 4-for-12 shooting. If the Lancers can get 10 points and 10 rebounds from him against O'Dea that'd be just fine.

Meanwhile, Guy, Winston and McCallister combined for 57 points in the Lakes' 73-67 victory in the second round of state against the Gators. Those three need to play that exact same way against the Fighting Irish.

You know the saying, things are easier said than done.

Prediction: Whoever wins this game is going to win the 3A state championship game, plain and simple.