PREP PLAYOFF BASKETBALL: Four Olympic Peninsula teams move on to regional round
Published 4:50 pm Monday, February 23, 2026
After a busy weekend of district playoff basketball, four Olympic Peninsula basketball teams remain standing, moving on to the state regional round Friday and Saturday.
The teams — the Port Angeles, Sequim and Neah Bay girls and the Neah Bay boys — learned their opponents, times and locations of their games late Sunday.
The Port Angeles girls, who qualified for state with a 64-38 district tournament victory over Steilacoom on Friday, lost in the district championship game 60-48 on Saturday to Fife, the champion of the South Puget Sound League. That game was closer than the final score shows as Port Angeles was down just four points midway through the fourth quarter.
Port Angeles (17-7), the Olympic League champion and the No. 2 seed out of the District 3 tournament, was given a No. 12 seed at regionals and will play No. 13 Renton (21-4), making a relatively short trip to the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma at 6 p.m. Saturday. This is a loser-out game with the winner moving on to the Yakima SunDome on March 4.
Sequim had an especially tough road to state. The Wolves had to win two straight to make it and they did it, defeating Orting 74-55 on Friday and upsetting Bainbridge 46-44 to finish third in the District 3 tournament. Bainbridge had beaten Sequim in two earlier meetings this year.
Sequim (15-7) is a No. 14 seed and will play No. 11 Nathan Hale (13-9) at 2 p.m. Saturday at Bellevue College. This is another loser-out game.
None of the District 3 teams got particularly good seeding. Even district champion Fife was given a No. 9 seed and must win a regional against Ridgefield to qualify for the SunDome.
The top 2A seed is Lynden, which is 23-0.
The Neah Bay (21-2) girls, as expected, are No. 1 seeds in the girls 1B tournament. Neah Bay, which won the Tri-District tournament, got a pretty good test from Crosspoint in the district championship game, winning 60-47 without starter Angel Halttunen, who was injured. Qwaapeys Greene scored 20 points in the fourth quarter as Neah Bay blew open a close game in the final minutes.
Neah Bay is ranked No. 1 at the 1B level in Ratings Percentage Index and the Red Devils are gunning for their fourth straight state championship.
Neah Bay will get a good test early, facing rival No. 8 Lummi (21-3) in the opening round at 8 p.m. Friday at the University of Puget Sound. As a top seed, the Red Devils are protected and win or lose, they will move on to Numerica Veterans Arena in Spokane. If they lose, their next game would be in the Round of 12 on March 4. If they win, they would move to the state quarterfinals on March 5.
The Neah Bay boys finished third at the Tri-District tournament, beating Summit Classicial Christian 73-38 in the third-place game Saturday. The Red Devils have the longest trip to regionals of any area team.
Neah Bay (18-4) enters state as the No. 7 seed and will play No. 2 Almira-Coulee-Hartline at 2 p.m. Saturday in Wenatchee. ACH is the No. 1 team in the state in RPI with a 22-1 record. The No. 1 seed is Lummi, which has a 23-1 record and is No. 3 in RPI. The Neah Bay boys got a high enough seed to also be protected from the loser-out games and will move on to Spokane win or lose to play either March 4 or March 5.
The Port Angeles boys basketball team came close to qualifying for regionals. The Roughriders lost in the District 3 third-place game 48-44 to Franklin Pierce on Saturday and finished their season with a 12-11 record.
