WIAA State Championship Spokane Arena: 1B’s Repeat with Neah Bay and Wellpinit while 2B girls goes to Napavine and Colfax takes 2B boys

3/3/2024

The 2b and 1b State Basketball Championships were at the Spokane Arena this past weekend and 2 teams repeated as State Champs both in the 1b classification. Neah Bay earned their 2nd straight title after many years of placing incoluding their best ever finish prior to the Championships of 2nd place in 2021 where they lost to Mt Vernon Christian by 4 points. This pushed the Reds to new heights getting that 1st big Trophy last year and now adding a 2nd one with their 39-28 win over the Hurricanes.

The top 1B boys trophy is also not going anywhere as Wellpinit took down Mossyrock with a furious comeback in the 4th quarter. The Vikings led the Redskins 45-37 after 3 quarters when Wellpinit made their 4th quarter run scoring 23 points and holding Mossyrock to just 11 for the 60-56 win. Wellpinit has been to the State Tournament only 3 times which were the last 3 years in a row and did not trophy in their 1st appearance but now have won 2 in a row.

The 2B boys Trophy went to the tradition rich Colfax Bulldogs who added State Title #6 to their trophy case with a convincing 13 point win over Columbia (Burbank). The Bulldogs came in as the #3 seed and rolled through the westside’s Central B conference to get to the Championship with wins over #6 Toutle Lake, #12 Wahkiakum and then #2 Napavine in the semi’s before rolloing past #1 Columbia (Burbank).

The Napavine Tigers won their 1st girls state basketball title with a tight 1 point win over Okanogan. The Tigers scord a huge bucket with 16-seconds to play to get the historic win. The Tigers were the #1 seed and and beat the tough 3 seeded Bulldogs. Okanogan was upset by #6 Adna in the regionals and battled thorugh the loser out round of 16 with a win over #11 Cle Elum-Roslyn followed that with a win over #4 Colfax in the quarters and then #2 Warden in the semifinals. Napavine took a similar route after getting stunned in the regionals losing to #8 Mabton. The Tigers had to also play in the loser out Wednesday game and beat #9 Tonasket then a tough #7 seed in Brewster winning by 2 points. Napavine then took out #6 Adna in the semi’s before clinching their 1st ever Championship.