Shorecrest girls open State play 4 pm Friday at Bellevue Community College

The Shorecrest girls’ basketball team opens State play Friday at 4 p.m. at Bellevue Community College with a regional game against Timberline from the Tumwater School District, south of Olympia.

The game is part of the new format that replaces the traditional 16-team State tournaments with four four-team regionals in each enrollment classification leading to eight-team State tournaments.

Each regional will have two No. 1 seeded teams playing for a direct path to the State tournaments and two No. 2 seeded teams playing in an elimination game.

Shorecrest and Timberline are No. 2 seeds playing in an elimination game, with the loser out and the winner to play Saturday against the loser of the 7:30 game between Kennedy Catholic and Holy Names. The winner of the Saturday game will be the region’s second entry in the eight-team State 3A tournament March 3-5 at the Tacoma Dome.

The Shorecrest-Timberline game matches two teams coming off disappointing district-tournament performances. Shorecrest (15-8) had a 13-game winning streak before losing the Northwest District championship game to Glacier Peak in overtime Friday.

Timberline (22-1) was undefeated before losing to Kennedy in the semifinals of the West Central/Southwest bi-district tournament.