2021 National Hardwood Invite: What We Learned By Andrew Beyer

After a tournament full of exciting moments, blowouts, and COVID cancellations, one of the biggest high school tournaments in Washington has finally come to an end. Many of the games ended up being large blowouts, close contests, and even canceled outright, but what we did end up finding out was, who the dominant teams in Washington are.

Garfield ended up getting 1st place in the tournament by knocking off #1 Auburn in the championship 62-52. Garfield dominated most of the tournament, which was led by star players Washington commit Koren Johnson, and Jaylin Stewart.

The 2nd place team, the Auburn Trojans were ranked #1 coming into the tournament and looked like they couldn’t be stopped. The team is led by seniors Tre Blassingame and Maleek Arrington who carry the ability to drive and shoot. In fact, some consider Blassingame the best shooter in the entire state. Despite being a top team in the state they are quite undersized with Blassingame being their tallest player at 6’4. The Trojans make up for the lack of size with being extremely quick. Their offensive transition down the court is lightning fast. Anyone could blink once they inbound, and they’ll already be down past halfcourt. On defense they consistently run a trap, where they swarm the ball handler with multiple defenders and force many turnovers over the course of the game.

The O’Dea Fighting Irish came home with the 3rd place hardware. They ended up beating South Medford in the 3rd place game on a last second layup by senior Owen Moriarty. The Irish handled Gonzaga Prep in the first round, squeaked by Bellevue in round 2 and ended up facing the Auburn Trojans in the semifinals. The Irish fell to the Trojans 80-74 in one of the most controversially officiated games all this season. Expect these two teams to clash come state tournament time in the Tacoma Dome.

Taking 4th place would be the South Medford Panthers. The Panthers are a quite interesting team given the fact that they are the number one ranked team in all of Oregon, so it was quite interesting to see how they would fare against the big dogs to their north. They are led by 6’4 senior Devin Malcolm who because of his large frame and play style, is sometimes referred to as “Baby Zion.” In the semis, the Panthers came out hot in the first half against Garfield by taking a 10 point lead, but despite the well-played first half, the Bulldogs turned on the jets and defeated the panthers 63-50.

All in all, what everyone found out in this tournament was who the most dominate teams in Washington were. Expect Auburn, O’Dea, and Garfield to all be at the Tacoma Dome early into March this season.