Highland boys win overtime thriller, lose in semi-final

The Highland Christian boys basketball team nearly completed a remarkable march to State on Saturday Feb. 9.
Fresh off a gutsy 57-56 win over North Sound Christian, the Knights played the very next day against Neah Bay. They never got their legs back under them in the Neah Bay game, losing 66-53 to force a loser-out matchup with Clallam Bay on Friday Feb. 15.
In the game against North Sound Jon Enge dropped 26 points for the Knights and Highland got 13 more from Caleb Brown. But the big bucket of the night was scored by Jeff Kelly whose layin with four seconds on the clock in overtime put Highland over the top.
Against Neah Bay, Enge again led the way with 16 points while Kelly scored 14 and Craig Crawford tallied 11. The game was tied up after three quarters but Highland ran out of gas at the end, having to play on back-to-back nights.
Darrington boys and girls both advance

The Darrington Logger basketball teams will both live to play another day as they each advanced in the Tri-District playoffs by winning Feb. 8.
The boys got 24 points, five assists, and five rebounds from shooting guard Mark Jones in a 77-55 beating of Concrete. Mike Parris added 19 for the Loggers and Cory Hoveskeland chipped in 18. By beating Concrete the Loggers improved their record to 9-3 in league, 16-4 overall. Darrington clinched a home playoff game coming up Feb. 14.
The Darrington girls also squeaked past Concrete 48-44 and will face the Lions again on Tuesday, Feb. 12, to settle the fourth seed in the Northwest 1A/2B district playoffs. Darrington will host the rematch.
For the Loggers Hailey Wales led the attack with 16 points, while Jordan Corley added 15. Randi Wales also put in 10 points for the victors.