Clearing up the playoff picture | Prep basketball news

In 4A, the boys basketball KingCo Tournament gets underway on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at the higher seeded school.

In 4A, the boys basketball KingCo Tournament gets underway on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at the higher seeded school.

The top four teams from each division will matchup in the first round of the double-elimination tournament with the top two earning the league’s direct berths to the regional round and the third place finisher facing the third place team from the 4A WesCo tournament.

Skyline locked up the top seed to the league tournament with its win over Newport on Friday and now has a three game lead on second-place Redmond with only three games to play. Since the Spartans took down the Mustangs both times they met this year, it will be coach Jay J. Davis’ squad taking the top seed to the 4A KingCo tourney, where they will meet either Bothell or Ballard.

The 4A girls tourney will start a day later at higher seeded schools and will also pit the top four teams from each division for two direct tickets to regionals and one spot in a KingCo-WesCo pigtail game.

Issaquah and Skyline both sport at 8-3 conference mark as of today and both have three games to play, including a meeting between the two on Tuesday at at Skyline. That game will go a long way in deciding the regular season Crest champ, as the winner will only need to win one of its final two games to capture the top seed to the league tournament.

Eastlake currently sits at 7-4 in conference play and will also get one more shot at the Spartans when Skyline travels across the Plateau on Wednesday, Feb. 1. If the Lady Wolves can win each of their three remaining games, they too will be in contention for the top seed.

In 3A, the top 10 seeds from the 13-team Metro League will take part in the boys and girls conference tournaments, which begin on Monday, Feb 6 with a pair of loser-out games.

Metro takes eight of the 12 berths to the SeaKing District tournaments, which begin at home sites on Saturday Feb. 11 before shifting to Bellevue College and Inglemoor High School for subsequent rounds.

The Crusaders are in solid shape on the boys side with a 6-8 mark in conference play, good enough for third place in the Mountain division. The girls, in last place in the Mountain with a 2-10 conference mark, likely have some work to do in order to avoid being left out of the field of 10.