What to watch for as March Madness arrives early for local basketball teams

Mar. 5—Spokane, Yakima, Las Vegas, Boise and beyond.

Local hoops fans have their attention split far and wide as the calendar has turned to March and Idaho and Washington State's basketball teams tackle their respective conference tournaments, while local high schools such as Lewiston, Clarkston and Pullman seek to bring home state tournament banners.

Lewis-Clark State's hoops squads await their national tournament slates.

Here's what to know about what local basketball teams have brewing over the next week.

Starch Madness

This is March.

Or rather, "Starch" for the Idaho Vandals.

The Vandal women's basketball team holds the No. 1 seed in the Big Sky Conference Tournament, being played this Saturday through Wednesday at Idaho Central Arena in Boise.

The Idaho men's basketball team arrives in Boise as their bracket's seventh seed.

The Vandals earned the top seed in the women's bracket thanks to a 17-1 conference record. Idaho built its Big Sky regular-season title campaign off of 15 consecutive victories, including a revenge win over Montana State after losing to the Bobcats by 33 points in Bozeman, Mont.

Second-year coach Arthur Moreira assembled a roster rich with key contributors who easily could have played elsewhere.

Players like Hope Hassmann (14.3 points per game), WSU transfer Kyra Gardner (maker of a team-best 63 3-pointers) and Lorena Barbosa (a team-best 54.8 shooting percentage from the floor) comprise a deep Idaho roster.

Last year, the Vandals were bounced in just their first game in Boise.

At 26-5 overall, Idaho has a real chance at qualifying for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016, but will almost certainly need to capture the league's automatic bid through a Big Sky Conference Tournament championship win.

If Idaho wants to make March Madness, it will need to survive Starch Madness, starting with a second-round matchup with the winner of Weber State vs. Portland State at 11 a.m. Pacific on Sunday on ESPN+.

For coach Alex Pribble and the Idaho men, a return to Boise may bring back epic memories of last year's thrilling tournament run, which included the Vandals' first Big Sky tourney win since 2017.

The Vandals' leading active scorer, Jackson Rasmussen, from nearby Meridian, will seek to make his homecoming one to remember when Idaho faces eighth-seeded Sacramento State at 7 p.m. Saturday on ESPN+.

Cougs at the WCC Tournament

It's been a pair of difficult seasons for the WSU Cougars.

Coach Kamie Ethridge's WSU women's basketball squad still has a single-digit win total, but its young and inexperienced roster is riding its first two-game winning streak into the West Coast Conference Tournament in Las Vegas.

The Cougars (7-24, 6-12) earned the ninth seed in the women's bracket and will play 12th-seeded Seattle U at noon today (ESPN+) at the Orleans Arena in the first of six rounds. Seattle U is the only conference foe that WSU swept.

Meanwhile, WSU men's hoops coach David Riley seems to have lost the support of a number of vocal fans on social media after the Cougars squandered a chance to rally for fourth place in the WCC, instead losing three straight to end the year, the last two to the teams at the bottom of the conference standings — Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine.

WSU (12-19, 7-11) is the eighth seed in the men's bracket and will play the winner of today's No. 12 Pepperdine vs. No. 9 Portland game at 6 p.m. Friday (ESPN+).

NAIA Tournament

After a pair of Cascade Conference Tournament championship game losses for the Lewis-Clark State men's and women's basketball teams, the two teams' postseasons continue in the NAIA's national tournament.

The Warrior women's basketball team will host the NAIA's "First and Second Rounds" March 13-14 at the P1FCU Activity Center.

The LC State men's hoops squad will hit the road for its opening-round games.

The full brackets will be announced today.

Bengals, Tigers hold No. 1 seeds among Idaho high school boys

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Lapwai and Deary won Idaho girls basketball championships several weeks ago. Now, in the Gem State, it's the boys' turn to chase titles.

The Lewiston Bengals and Kendrick Tigers claimed the top seeds in their respective brackets.

The Bengals dropped their first state tournament game in eight years to Twin Falls last season.

One year later, they repeated as 5A Inland Empire League district champions and know what it takes to compete at State.

Led by top scorer and LCSC basketball commit Royce Fisher, Lewiston has lost just once since dropping to 3-2 on Dec. 16. The Bengals are 20-3 overall and face Burley at 11 a.m. Pacific at Rocky Mountain High School in Meridian in the Idaho Class 5A state tournament.

Kendrick is chasing back-to-back Class 2A state titles and what would be its third boys basketball state championship in four seasons. For senior guard and 2A Whitepine League Player of the Year Ralli Roetcisoender, another championship would be the eighth of his high school career.

Roetcisoender represents an accomplished senior class of student-athletes who have four football championships, two boys basketball championships and a baseball crown in their four years of school.

The Tigers' history chase begins against eighth-seeded Grace at 11 a.m. today at Vallivue High in Caldwell.

Prairie of Cottonwood (2A No. 3 seed), Orofino (3A No. 3 seed) and Timberline of Weippe (1A No. 4 seed) also begin state tournament play today.

Prairie will play sixth-seeded Murtaugh at 4 p.m. Pacific at Vallivue, Orofino will meet sixth-seeded New Plymouth at 4 p.m. Pacific at Meridian High School and Timberline will face fifth-seeded Carey at 1 p.m. Pacific at Caldwell.

Hounds, Bantams in Yakima

The Pullman Greyhounds are a mainstay of March basketball in Yakima and that has not changed.

Behind the sharp shooting of Vaughn Holstad and Cade Rogers and the crafty post presence of Gavin Dealy, the Hounds claimed the No. 4 seed in the Washington Class 2A state tournament, taking place this weekend at the Yakima Valley SunDome.

After a 2A Greater Spokane League district tournament championship run, Pullman will play 11th-seeded Columbia River at 3:45 p.m. today.

The fourth-seeded Clarkston Bantams girls basketball team will face Nathan Hale (Seattle) at 9 a.m. today.

The Bantams — led by seniors Jaleyn McCormack-Marks, Aneysa Judy and Preslee Dempsey — went 1-2 this season against Deer Park, their GSL rival and one of the toughest teams in the state.

Clarkston survived an overtime shootout against Deer Park at home but lost the 2A GSL district tournament championship to the Stags after an uncharacteristic 1-for-23 showing from the 3-point line.

Defensively, the Bantams — who won the 2A GSL regular-season crown — showed strides, holding Deer Park to its lowest offensive output of the season and will put their skills to the test against the best.

Colfax, Gar-Pal among favorites in the small-school brackets

The Washington Class 2B state tournament is not the same this year after longtime Colfax boys basketball coach Reece Jenkin died of cancer on Friday.

The Bulldog boys played a seeding game that day, posting their greatest offensive output (96 points) in Colfax assistant coach Ben Aune's decade-or-so tenure.

Reece Jenkin's son, Adrik Jenkin, surpassed 2,000 career points with a 34-point showing and his sister, Allie Jenkin, posted a career-high 41 points, including each of the Bulldogs' 29 first-half points in inspirational performances on the day their father died.

The Colfax boys are the No. 1 seed in the 2B tournament and face Northeast 2B League rival Freeman at 5:30 p.m. today at the Spokane Arena.

Adna eliminated Colfax from the girls 2B tournament on Wednesday.

The Garfield-Palouse girls earned the No. 2 seed in the 1B tournament and will face Lummi Nation at 9 p.m. today in Spokane.

Standouts Elena Flansburg, Kyra Brantner and Morgan Lentz led the Vikings all the way to last year's state championship game to Neah Bay.

This year, they seek to win it all.

Also in the 1B bracket, Pomeroy lost to Yakama Tribal 50-39 on Wednesday in Spokane.

Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2260, staylor@lmtribune.com, or on X or Instagram @Sam_C_Taylor.