Who's the best girls team in the North? Who knows.

The one question on everybody's mind during the girls basketball game during Lake Stevens and Stanwood Wednesday night was pretty simple: which team's better?

That's a fantastic question. Stanwood head coach Dennis Kloke what do you think?

“These two teams are evenly matched,” he said after Stanwood defeated Lake Stevens 60-56.

That appears to be more true than ever. With Wednesday's result, both teams now stand at 8-1 in league and 14-1 overall, with each teams' only loss coming against each other (Lake Stevens won 61-52 on Dec. 9).

When the two play each other it creates an intriguing matchup. It's the fast-paced Vikings offense against the low-post Stanwood offense. Kloke – correctly – determined that if he was going to beat the Vikings, it would be because of his team's significant height advantage down low. The Spartans have three players at least six-feet tall.

The Vikings on the other hand, don't have a single player over 5-feet, 10-inches.

“It's two contrasting styles,” Kloke said. “…We're not finesse. We're grit.”

It's incredibly likely that these two teams will see each other again in the playoffs, either in districts or perhaps at the state tournament. Even the players realize the season series probably isn't over.

“We knew if we were going to be a state team this is the team you would have to beat,” said Stanwood post Paisley Heckman, who scored 16 points and grabbed five rebounds Wednesday night. “… I'm definitely sure we'll face them again.”

Heckman said that the Spartans didn't just want to win this game though, they eventually hope to secure the No. 1 seed for districts.

“There was definitely more riding on this game,” she said. “We definitely want to be the top Wesco spot. We wanted to beat Lake Stevens. We wanted to be in the top spot.”

Before the season both teams drew numbers in the event of a tie in the standings at season's end. Lake Stevens got No. 3, and Stanwood drew No. 5. This means that if both teams win their remaining games, Lake Stevens would the North's No. 1 seed, and Stanwood would hold the second seed in the tournament.

But there's still a lot of basketball to be played, and exciting, competitive atmospheres like the one at Stanwood Wednesday night can only help the teams improve said Vikings' head coach Randall Edens.

“It was a great environment, no question about that,” Edens said. “I told the girls if you don't enjoy something like tonight you shouldn't be playing the game.”

Edens hopes that in the playoffs, the Vikings and Spartans are on opposite sides of the bracket. He'd like to see both get as far as possible, which would likely mean not playing each other until a district (or state) championship.

“We hope we're on opposite sides, so if we see each other it's a district title game,” he said. But it was so exciting, “why wouldn't we want to do it again?”

Kloke too, looks forward to games against strong opponents.

“I want to play the toughest team we can play and I want to challenge myself and my young ladies to perform,” Kloke said.

So far both teams have performed pretty well. As a result, Wesco is showing some prominence in state rankings. The latest poll by the Tacoma News Tribune has three 4A teams ranked in the top 10.

Two of those teams are Lake Stevens (third) and Stanwood (fifth). Jackson (sixth) of the Wesco South is right behind them.

“That's a lot of respect for our league,” Edens said.

If these two teams continue to perform at a high level, that respect will continue. As will the Vikings' and the Spartans' basketball seasons.