OLYMPIA — The Port Angeles girls basketball team grabbed up the No. 1 seed in the 2A District 2/3 tournament, while both the Roughriders’ boys and girls teams will get to host playoff games this week.
And both games will be against the same school.
The Riders girls will host No. 8 seed Franklin Pierce at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The Port Angeles boys, a No. 4 seed, will host No. 5 seed Franklin Pierce at 6 p.m. Wednesday. If either Port Angeles team wins, they automatically qualify for the regional round, though they will play two more district games for seeding.
The Port Angeles girls are co-champions of the Olympic 2A League with Sequim and won a coin toss for the higher seed. The Sequim girls will go on the road as a No. 5 seed against No. 4 Enunclaw, also at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Though Sequim appears to have gotten a bad break having to play a road game as league champions, the Wolves can still lose a game and remain alive for the state tournament. Interestingly, if Sequim and Port Angeles both win, they will play each other a third time Thursday, with that game listed at Sammamish High School. Sequim and Port Angeles didn’t get the opportunity to play a tiebreaker after splitting two games and tying for the league championship with identical 13-1 records.
The Port Angeles girls (14-4 overall) are the No. 7-ranked 2A team in the state, according to the state’s Ratings Percentage Index while Sequim (17-3) is ranked No. 8. Franklin Pierce (11-7) is ranked No. 25 and Enumclaw is ranked No. 14 (15-4).
If the Roughriders lose their opening game, they will play either Highline (6-10) or Kingston (9-9) in the second round at home Thursday. If the Wolves lose, they will play either Orting (7-8) or Tyee (5-8) at home Thursday. Highline and Tyee are out of the KingCo 2A League.
Boys bracket
The Port Angeles (13-1 in league, 16-4 overall) boys are also co-champions with North Kitsap, but they lost their coin flip. North Kitsap got the No. 2 seed.
Franklin Pierce is ranked No. 13 in RPI in the state and has an overall 13-4 record. The Cardinals finished tied for second in the South Puget Sound 2A League.
If the Riders beat Franklin Pierce, they will likely face the No. 1-ranked 2A team in the state, White River (17-2), in the second round on Friday at Sammamish High School. If Port Angeles loses, the boys will play either Foss (8-11) or Kingston (8-12) on Friday, hosting that game.
A total of six teams come out of the District 2/3 tournament to qualify for regionals.
The boys district tournament has the state’s No. 1 seed in White River, No. 3 in North Kitsap and No. 7 in Port Angeles. Though Renton is ranked No. 11 in the state RPI, the Redhawks ended up with a higher tournament seed than Port Angeles.
Port Angeles and Sequim are the two highest-ranked teams in the girls’ tournament.
