A berth into the Class 4A Regional Tournament will be on the line Saturday in the Battle of Federal Way.
The Todd Beamer Titans will take on the Federal Way Eagles at 1 p.m. at Auburn High School in the quarterfinals of the West Central/Southwest District Tournament thanks to a pair of first-round wins Thursday night.
The Beamer-Federal Way winner will earn one of the seven Regional berths, while the loser will have to win two loser-out district games to qualify. The Beamer-Federal Way winner will take on the winner of a game between Curtis and Stadium at 6 p.m. Feb. 20 at Auburn in one district semifinal. The loser will play either South Kitsap and Evergreen at 7:45 p.m. Tuesday at Auburn.
Beamer and Federal Way split their two regular season match ups in the South Puget Sound League South Division. Beamer won the league championship with a 15-1 record in the SPSL South and Federal Way finished third at 13-3. But the Eagles handed the Titans’ their only loss in the final SPSL South regular season game, 67-64, on Feb. 6.
Beamer earned the quarterfinal berth against Federal Way with an opening-round district win over Gig Harbor Thursday night on their home court. The Titans cruised against the fourth-place team from the Narrows League, winning 67-54.
Beamer (17-4) jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead and led 18-10 after the first quarter. The Titans extended the lead to 34-21 at halftime.
The Tides (9-12) couldn’t handle Beamer’s 6-foot-6 Bogdon Bliznyuk all night long. The newly-crowned SPSL South Most Valuable Player finished with 10 points in the first half and finished with 23 points. Bliznyuk was 10 of 15 from the field and added five rebounds.
Gig Harbor closed the gap to 11 points late in the third quarter, but a three-point play from Bliznyuk put the Titans up 62-48 and essentially closed out the game.
Fellow first-team, All-SPSL South selection Trey Burch-Manning finished with 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field and added eight rebounds, to lead Beamer. Charles Frazier ended up with 11 points and Quadir Williams led the way with seven assists and six points.
Meanwhile, the Eagles beat up Battle Ground Thursday night, 82-58, on the road in Southwest Washington. Federal Way jumped all over Battle Ground in the opening quarter, outscoring the Tigers 20-9 in the first eight minutes.
Federal Way cruised from there and had five players score in double digits. Junior Malik Montoya led the way with 22 points, Viont’E Daniels and Adrian Davis finished with 13 each, Christian Jones had 12 and D’Jimon Jones chipped in 11.
