Great story on WSU's Reggie Moore and getting ready for UW

The Spokesman Review has a pretty nice write up on WSU's new guard Reggie Moore and the tension is building for the big WSU vs UW match up.

Cashmere upsets Cascade (Boys basketball)

The Cashmere Bulldogs worked out an upset win over neighboring Cascade with a 78 to 57 victory last night. From the Wenatchee World website.

Pedro Farias and Wes Worthen combined for 53 points as the Bulldogs first went through, then over, the Kodiaks defense.

“They got to the basket pretty easily in the first half, and they shot the lights out in the second half,” Kodiaks coach Paul Fraker said. “You’ve got to give them credit. They shot the ball really well.”

Farias knocked down four 3-pointers on the way to a game-high 29 points, while Worthen had 24 points and seven rebounds for Cashmere.

“They were giving us open shots, so we might as well take them,” Farias said.

Cascade never led in the game, and pulled even just once, on a pair of free throws by Evan Parton that made it 29-all with 3:02 left in the first half.

Non-league games impacting rankings

I was just curious as to why a team like Okanogan was ranked so high in the state basketball rankings for so long yet the LR Raiders have only just now breached the top ten. So I took a look at the non-league schedule for the Ok Bulldogs and the LR Raiders and found my answer.

The difference is the non-league games at the beginning of the season. Who did the Ok Bulldogs play in their first three nl games?

1. 2B Entiat (Ok won 52-42)
2. 2B Oroville (Ok won 56-50)
3. 2B Liberty Bell (Ok won 102-28

Then look at the LR first three games:

1. 2A Ephrata (LR lost 54-66. Note Ephrata in ranked top 10 in 2A)
2. 1A Freeman (LR won 46-41. Note Freeman is currently ranked one spot above LR)
3. 1A Chelan (LR lost 77-57)

Then look at some of the other earlier Ok nl games: Ok vs 2B Waterville (85-33), Ok vs 1B Almira (64-49), Ok vs 1B Kettle Falls (80-15).

Compare to LR earlier nl games: LR vs 2A Cheney (LR lost 61-71), LR vs 2A Mt. Spokane (LR lost 58-63).

This just shows how deceptive some of the AP rankings can be. A team like LR might be penalized in the AP rankings, however their pressure cooker nl games will set them up better for season ending tournament play.

Kinda like how the Gonzaga Bulldogs have built their program.

1A BBall Rankings Caribou Trail has 3 in top ten!

MaxPreps 1A boys basketball rankings are out and the Caribou Trail has 3 teams in the top 10.

1. Chelan
2. Vashon
3. Granger
4. Onalaska
5. Freeman (Rockford)
   
6. Lake Roosevelt (Coulee Dam)
   
7. Castle Rock
8. Cascade (Leavenworth)
9. Goldendale
10. Bellevue Christian
    

I saw Chelan play the other day against LR and I just cannot imagine how good a team would have to be to beat them. They are good. Very good.

And Freeman a notch ahead of LR? How, when LR beat Freeman earlier this year?

2B State Basketball Rankings

Jan 24 2B high school basketball rankings (top 15) via MaxPreps.

1. Liberty Christian (Richland)
2. Northwest Christian (Colbert)
3. Pe Ell
4. Davenport
5. Adna
6. Bear Creek (Redmond)
7. Riverside Christian (Yakima)
8. White Swan
   
9. Wahkiakum (Cathlamet)
10. Lind Ritzville
11. St. George's (Spokane)
12. Waitsburg/Prescott
13. Naselle
14. Napavine
15. Colfax
    

Chelan crushes Lake Roosevelt

Well I will say this. That Joey Harris kid from Chelan is the real deal. If there is a team that will beat Chelan at state this year I'd hate to see them.

The final score between Chelan and LR was something like 89 to 52. But it was not even that close.

Lake Roosevelt vs Chelan Tonight

Big game in the CTL tonight. The LR Raiders will be taking on the Chelan Goats. I'm sure that all the punditry will have the Goats winning this game in a walk. However, the Raiders of today are not the Raiders the Goats played at the beginning of the season.

And LR beat Chelan at home last year.

This could probably be the game that decides who is number one in the Caribou Trail. Okanogan will probably drop to fourth place and Cascade will have a hard time getting past LR when the play them at LR's barn later on in the season.

WSU Cougars over USC and a half game out of first

Who would have thought that at this point in the season the WSU Cougars would be only a half game out of first place and looking much livelier than the UW Dogs? I did. I had a conversation with a friend of mine at the beginning of the season and I said at the time that I just did not see what everyone else was seeing in the UofW. Just didn't get the hype (see Okanogan Bulldogs).

Now we will see if the Cougs can get passed the other LA school. The problem for the Cougars this year, I think, is going to be lack of size. They have only one really legit big man and that is Casto.

Lake Roosevelt Raiders move to third in the league

This story was published in the Grand Coulee Star newspaper before the LR Raiders handily defeated the Okanogan Bulldogs on Tuesday the 19th.

The Lake Roosevelt boys swept both games last week, pummeling both the Tigers of Tonasket and the Bulldogs of Cashmere.

Read the rest here...

First Blog Post

This blog is an attempt by me to simply follow and discuss sports in, around and concerning eastern Washington.

I would love to be able to delve into HS Sports quite a bit while also including EWA colleges.

My school is Lake Roosevelt High School and I am a 1983 graduate.