Get out a #2 pencil! There’s going to be a quiz later!!

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Get out a #2 pencil! There’s going to be a quiz later!!

January 17, 2013 by David Svien

Wolf playoff hopes hinge on players emulating JV star Wynter Thorne and going hard to the hoop the next three weeks. (John Fisken photo)

Wolf playoff hopes may rest on players emulating JV star Wynter Thorne and going hard to the hoop the next three weeks. (John Fisken photo)

A win a day and you can be as happy as Carson Risner (left) and Josh Wilsey. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

The playoff push has begun in earnest.

Friday night’s Coupeville/South Whidbey doubleheader rumble for Island basketball supremacy (the Wolf boys tip off at 5 PM in Langley, with the girls taking the court at 6:45), will pit two of the three 1A schools in the eight-team 1A/2A Cascade Conference.

While all three 1A schools are guaranteed a playoff berth (and at least two postseason games), Coupeville is battling neck and neck with the Falcons for the #2 seed, which would result in a slightly easier playoff outlook.

The Wolf girls (5-10 overall, 3-6 in league play) actually have a (very slim) shot at still catching King’s (7-2) for the #1 seed.

All it takes is four straight losses for King’s, four straight wins for Coupeville (including an upset of 9-0 Archbishop Thomas Murphy) and the final Wolf regular season game — Friday, Feb. 1 at King’s — would be a winner-take-all battle.

Barring that miracle, Coupeville will be playing for the #2 seed, which they currently own. Both South Whidbey and the Wolves are 3-6, but Coupeville has the tiebreaker because they won the two team’s first meeting in mid-December.

Seeding is important, because when the three Cascade Conference seeds open the district playoffs, they will face off against the top five schools from the Northwest Conference. A #2 seed gets the Wolves an opening match-up against the #3 seed from the NWC, while a #3 seed finds them pitted against the NWC #1.

Districts, held Feb. 4-9, is a double elimination event, with three teams advancing on to tri-districts.

And what about the Wolf boys?

While neither Coupeville or South Whidbey will catch King’s (9-0), the #2 seed is very much up for grabs. South Whidbey (3-12, 1-8) won the first meeting, but a Wolf (1-14, 0-9) win Friday would leave the two squads knotted up with four to play.