Toppenish, Wapato
face known, unknown

By ROGER UNDERWOOD
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

It was first things first on Sunday for Adam Strom.

Having just learned the first-round opponent for his Wapato Wolves in the Class 2A state tournament, Strom said, "I'm trying to look on a map to find out where this town is."

The town is Sultan, the team is the Turks, and the meeting place for them and Wapato will be the SunDome, where they will oppose each other at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

For JoJo Mesplie, there was no such dilemma. Mark Morris has long been a state basketball power and most who follow the game know the Monarchs reside in Longview.

The big thing was that Mesplie's Toppenish Wildcats were back, having returned to state for the first time in a long time to meet Mark Morris on Wednesday at 2 p.m.

Mesplie was only a year out of high school when Toppenish reached the 1992 Class 1A title game in Tacoma and fell 64-61 to Lynden.

Sultan, by the way, is southeast of Everett on U.S. Highway 2, and the Turks have not been to state in 48 years.

Wapato, of course, has been on the state basketball map much more recently, having narrowly missed a championship in 2000 when then-coach Larry Usher's squad lost to Luke Ridnour and Blaine 60-56 in overtime.

And now the Lower Valley neighbors are both here -- both at state in the SunDome.

This will be Wapato's second state appearance in the last three years under Strom. The Wolves didn't place in 2007 in Tacoma, but this time the 16-6 Wolves have both optimism and momentum, even if they lost to Quincy in the
district title game.

"We played well in the district championship game," Strom said. "It's more a credit to Quincy. Our style is to take advantage of other teams' mistakes, and they didn't make a lot of mistakes."

As for the 15-9 Turks, who were third in the Cascade 2A/1A League behind Archbishop Murphy and King's?

"We're pretty much in the dark right now," Strom said. "Basically, we just know that any team in the state tournament is a good team."

Including Wapato.

As for Toppenish's state drought, the Wildcats were said to have ended an even longer losing streak to get here.

"It's been, like, 22 years since we've beaten Grandview," Mesplie said, referring to Toppenish's harrowing 52-51 defeat of the Greyhounds in district play Saturday. "That's what a lot of the community members have been telling me.

"So it's just a neat experience to through this with the kids and the community."

On paper, Top-Hi's first-round challenge is formidable.

The second-ranked, 20-3 Monarchs start a front line of 6-10, 6-9 and 6-7, and might seem a mismatch for the undersized 14-11 Wildcats. But given Toppenish's 4-16 nondistrict season in 2008, a projected eighth-place CWAC
finish this year and eight losses in its final 11 regular-season games, an underdog status seems inconsequential.

"We had some injuries late in the season that contributed to the losses," Mesplie said. "But also I think it helped us get some other kids some experience. Then we got everybody back healthy just before the postseason."

They got enough back in time for an 82-69 win over Wapato to reverse a 10-point loss earlier this season and secure a district berth.

"That was a huge game," Mesplie said. "It was almost a game we had to win or we could have potentially gotten bumped out of even making districts."

Following were victories over Othello, in a district play-in game, Ellensburg, Selah and then Grandview -- the latter featuring a 23-0 second-half run.

A sign of encouragement, and perhaps a factor Wednesday, could be the 46-43 defeat of Mark Morris by River Ridge in Saturday's Southwest 2A district title game, one in which the Hawks used full-court defensive pressure and effective 3-point shooting to neutralize the Monarchs' height and snap a 16-game winning streak.

"That was good news to hear," Mesplie said. "Just looking at Mark Morris, with their size, I think the style we play should help us."