Crossovers: A new playoff wrinkle

SPOKANE VALLEY—Historically, postseason basketball at the B level has taken place over four weekends throughout the greater Spokane County area.

Four weekends apparently wasn’t enough for District Nos. 6 and 7, as the two added a new wrinkle to the postseason this year: Crossover games Feb. 17-18.

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association has allotted three boys state berths to District 7, three girls state berths to District 7, two boys state berths to District 6 and three girls state berths to District 6.

Instead of making the district tournament the final qualifier, as has historically been the case, the two districts will combine those allocations (five total for boys and six total for girls) and decide which teams will qualify for state through the crossover weekend.

But the traditional district tournament is by no means rendered useless. That tournament will seed each team for the district crossover games.

“The crossover gives more teams from our district the opportunity to move on,” Davenport boys coach Matt Henry said. “Our district is one if not the best in the state and I am, more often than not, in favor of giving more of our district more opportunities. If you finish third, this system doesn’t fully benefit you, but it will the fourth and fifth seeds.”

On the girls side, the Top 3 in each district will host crossover games.

District 7’s champion will host District 6’s sixth-place finisher, while District 6’s champion will host District 7’s sixth-place finishers. No. 2 seeds will host No. 5 seeds and No. 3 seeds will host No. 4 seeds.

On the boys side, each district’s No. 1 and No. 2 seeds will host the opposite District’s No. 5 and No. 4 seeds respectively. District 7’s No. 3 seed will host District 6’s No. 3 seed.

Games hosted by District 7 will take place at West Valley High School in Spokane Valley, while games hosted by District 6 will be in Wenatchee.

“To my knowledge we will match up games after we know results to district tournaments,” Davenport Athletic Director Tim Rasmussen said. “Accommodations will be made for schools who have both girls and boys qualify.”

If district tournament results go chalk according to each district’s current standings, crossover girls matchups would include Upper Columbia Academy at Okanogan, Liberty at Lake Roosevelt, Davenport at Brewster, Tonasket at Northwest Christian (Colbert), Oroville at St. George’s and Bridgeport at Colfax.

Crossover boys matchups would include Lind-Ritzville/Sprague/Washtucna/Harrington at Lake Roosevelt, St. George’s at Liberty Bell, Brewster at Northwest Christian, Tonasket at Colfax and Okanogan at Davenport.

“I love it! When we could potentially take one of their berths, it’s a good deal. On the contrary, they may take one of ours as well; however, I feel a good coach might have an opportunity to get by someone they haven’t already played multiple times,” Reardan girls head coach Bob Swannack said. “While this may create some economic issues with school districts having to travel, I feel the potential advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.”

The start of the District 7 tournament has been moved up a few days and consolidated into 10 days.