RENTON – For the Meadowdale boys and girls basketball teams, there will be an extra amount of familiarity when the Class 3A state tournaments begin on Wednesday at the Tacoma Dome.
A season after qualifying for state for the first time since 1978, the boys won’t need to ask the girls for directions to Tacoma for their first-round matchup against White River. The girls, who will represent Meadowdale’s ninth-straight state playoff team, will open the tournament with Blanchet, a familiar foe.
Both teams learned who they will play at Sunday’s tournament draw, which was held at the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association offices in Renton.
Mavericks coach Karen Blair has scheduled regular-season games against Blanchet the last five seasons with the belief that the Braves give Meadowdale a taste of state tournament basketball.
It will be the third state playoff meeting between the two teams since 1997. The Mavericks beat Blanchet 40-33 in the 2000 Class 3A state championship game. The Braves, who missed the 2003 tournament to end a string of eight straight appearances, beat Meadowdale in the 1997 third-place game. Including that loss, the Mavericks are 4-3 against Blanchet but have won four of the last five meetings.
“They’ve got a strong program,” said Blair, whose team will begin the four-day tournament at 2 p.m. on Wednesday. “They are a very well-coached team, very disciplined. They are very balanced. You have to prepare for anything and everything against them.”
The Mavericks beat Blanchet 56-43 on Dec. 28, but the Braves were without Michelle Augustavo, a 6-foot guard who averages a team-best 14.7 points per game.
While Blanchet enters the tournament with a pedestrian record of 17-10, the Braves have lost to just five teams – including state tournament teams Bainbridge, Rainier Beach Chief Sealth and Meadowdale. The other loss came to Cleveland, a 20-game winner that did not make it to state.
“They’ve had some injuries with Augustavo being in and out this year,” said Blair, whose 22-1 team lost only to 20-2 Snohomish. “But, I think they are playing as strong of basketball as anyone right now.”
The Meadowdale boys made the most of their first appearance in 25 years. The Mavericks went to the semifinals last season, where they lost to eventual-champion Rainier Beach, a team considered one of best the state has ever produced. If Meadowdale makes it past the 20-4 Hornets, Bellingham – which beat Meadowdale 67-62 in the district tournament – could await in the second round. The winner of that game would qualify for the semifinals, where tournament favorite Rainier Beach is likely to be the opponent.
Second-year coach Chad McGuire will need to schedule wakeup calls when the team check into the team hotel on Tuesday night.
The Mavericks play White River at 9 a.m. in the first game of the tournament. McGuire said he has a couple of tapes of White River games that he hadn’t seen before going to Sunday’s draw. Though the White River may be uncharted territory for the Mavericks, the Tacoma Dome is not.
“There are not going to be any surprises,” said McGuire, whose 21-3 team is one of 13 20-game winners in the 16-team tournament. “We’ve been to the Tacoma Dome before and know the whole process. I don’t know how much of an advantage it is, but it’s not going to hurt us.”
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